


The Wide World of Inkopolis

by raining13



Series: TWWOI [1]
Category: Splatoon
Genre: Angst and Feels, Fluff and Humor, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Multi, Past Child Abuse, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-02-25 22:31:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 27,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13222566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raining13/pseuds/raining13
Summary: Inkopolis is such a big place, with so many people walking around. But when octarians threaten the city, heroes of all types will rise up to protect their home.You can find the original multi-perspective story here: https://www.quotev.com/story/7147213/The-Wide-World-Of-Inkopolis





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Wide World of Inkopolis](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/347916) by Multiple. 



The sky was clear, the air was warm, and the land was awake. Summer had arrived for Inkopolis, and no one was willing to waste it.

Roy Evershore, a fourteen-year-old with blue tentacles, had just entered a turf war in Blackbelly Skatepark. It was the perfect day for the sport, and he inked a side passage while the rest of his team attacked the pink team in the center of the stage. He held his inkbrush to the ground, the ink splashing as he ran through it.

But he was on his guard; in a secluded area like this, it wasn't hard to get ambushed. He heard feet pattering against the ground.

Someone was coming. He could only hope it was someone on his team.

A pink inkling boy turned the corner, locking his gaze with Roy's. He smiled flirtatiously. Roy felt immediately uncomfortable.  _Not again..._

"Hi there, cutie!" said the boy. "I won't splat you if ya go on a date with me later." His grin was sly. Roy wasn't having any of this.

"Splat me, then," he said, keeping his expression neutral.

"Aww, why ya playin' hard to get?" The boy inched closer, a splattershot in his pale hands.

"Don't come any closer!" Roy threatened, raising his inkbrush, getting into a defensive stance. He tried to hide his growing fear. This had happened before.

_This NEVER ends well..._

"I'm afraid I can't stop getting closer to you, cutie," the boy said. He reached over suddenly, grabbing Roy's inkbrush and throwing it aside. "Whatcha gonna do now, cutie?"

_Run_ , Roy thought, but he kept the thought to himself. "N-Nothing!" he said instead. "I can't do nothing!"

"Oh, but you can do  _something_ , cutie," the boy continued, pinning Roy against the stone wall. "Like, perhaps...kiss me?" He leaned closer.

_You hardly even know me, creep!_

"Go to  _hell_ ," Roy muttered. He kneed him in the crotch, the boy's knees immediately buckling. Roy grabbed his inkbrush and ran.

"Cutie!" the boy said through his pain. "Come back!" Roy didn't look back, some of his teammates obviously confused as he jumped over a fence that secluded the area.

_Man, he's persistent_ , Roy thought. He saw his apartment building out of the corner of his vision, sprinting towards it. As soon as he got inside, he ran to the elevator and slammed the button for the third floor, ignoring the shouts from the desk clerk. As soon as the elevator got to his destination, he ran to his apartment, locking the door.

_That was close_ , he thought.  _WAY too close._

* * *

Orca stood in front of Octavio, only a few feet away from his face.

He smelled like seaweed. The atmosphere pulsed different colors, giving Orca a headache. Octavio glowered at her. Her expression stayed aloof, but inside, her heart was thumping loudly. Screaming. Acknowledging the fact that they were not far from  _finding out_.

They couldn't find out. She wouldn't let them. The Captain and Agent 3 were the only real family she had ever had.

She stood up straighter.

"You were off duty yesterday," Octavio growled. "You were sighted in Octo Valley. Can you tell me why?"

"I was...patrolling, sir. I saw suspicious inkling activity, sir. So I followed the inkling, sir," she drawled, trying to sound stupid and low ranked.

"Did you find anything out?"

Beads of sweat appeared, one by one, on her forehead.

"No, sir."

"Then go."

"Yes, sir."

Once out of sight, Orca's upper body collapsed in relief.

She was going to have to be more careful.

* * *

Meilie Dawnset hid behind the large crate. She was right next to Museum D'Alfonzo, and a match was about to begin.

She heard the sound of guns firing, which meant it had started. She had charged up her special earlier, which was an inkstrike. She fired it onto the middle of the museum.

She snickered, hearing the gunshots stop. The players were obviously confused. Neon blue wasn't one of the ink colors in the match. Everybody had stopped running and firing, looking at each other in awe.

She burst out laughing. This was  _hilarious_ to her. Trouble was her middle name, and this was a harmless prank. She wouldn't be traced to it, so many people had cyan ink. Who would stop her, the cops?

She heard sirens.

Oh. So the cops  _would_ stop her.

_Not if I can help it._

She rushed to her apartment, with the knowledge that they would never know who did it.

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Roy waited for a bit in his apartment, thinking through the situation.  _What if that guy is right outside my door?! He seems like the type to do that._

He couldn't stand just sitting there and panicking, so he decided, for now, to just watch some turf war while he waited for the coast to clear. He grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.

The match was yellow VS pink. The stage, Museum D'Alfonsino. The match was pretty normal at first, but out of nowhere, a neon blue inkstrike appeared. It landed in the middle of the stage, confusing the players.

Roy turned off the TV, and walked over to the door.

_I guess that if he followed me, he would have been more forward about it._

He opened the door, leaned outside, and looked both ways, checking to see if the coast was clear. Sure enough, it was, and he left his apartment.

When he arrived at the plaza, several inklings were talking about what happened at the museum.

"It was like a ninja attack!" one inkling said. "We didn't even see it coming!"

_Why is it so big of a deal? Anyone could have done that._

Roy arrived at the battle lobby and waited for his match. The stages in rotation had changed to Saltspray and the Kelp Dome.  _I hope I get Saltspray,_ he thought. He felt the familiar pulling sensation that meant he was being teleported to his match. When he rose from the spawn point, his expression dimmed, seeing the surroundings of Kelp Dome. His team color was a sky blue.

He noticed the other team's color was a weird shade of purple.

"That's weird," he commented.

"What's weird?" a girl asked.

"The other team's ink color," he replied.

"Must be a new color, don't worry."

"I'm not worried, just curious."

The match started. Everything seemed perfectly fine. That is, until Roy got to the area near the middle. Seeing the other team for the first time, he was hit with horrified realization.

The other team's players weren't inklings.

* * *

After the mix-up with Octavio, Orca sat in Octo Valley, monitoring turf wars. She liked watching them, usually for pleasure rather than safety.

One turf war she'd monitored earlier that day was cut short by an ink strike that shouldn't have been there. People treated it like a big deal, from what she heard, even though it probably wasn't.

What happened next was a big deal, though. She was reviewing the teams on a match that was about to start. The blue team looked perfectly ordinary, just two girls and two boys, nothing special.

But the second team made her breathing hitch.

Octolings. They were all octolings.

She ran out of the monitoring shed. The Captain saw the worried look on her face as she left.

"What's wrong, lassie?" Orca didn't have time to answer him. She bounded down into the grate, and sprinted to Inkopolis's lobby. She passed the waiting area and went through a door reading "Employees Only" in big, bold letters. Behind it was the maintenance room, which contained teleoprtation valves to each stage. She jumped in the one for Kelp Dome, feeling the familiar pulling sensation.

She came out near the blue team's spawn point. Some of the blue team was out spreading turf, ignoring the fact that their opponents were octolings.

 _They can't face them,_ Orca thought desperately.  _They'll die. Octoling ink is poisonous. If you get spatted by it more than three times without getting a charge up, you could die for good._

The inklings were already half way through the stage. She decided to do the best thing she could do: be the shield.

She took the upper routes and side passages. Whenever someone met up with an octoling, she jumped in front of them and took the shots that they should've. She kicked the octoling down, and then the inkling would finish them off. She defended left and right, protecting the players, until she saw something that made her heart skip a beat.

Her sister. Her sister who loved killing inklings, who was much less peaceful than her. Her sister who'd started elite training and earned seaweed for her hair.

And she was fighting an inkling boy with deep blue eyes and goggles atop his head.

Fueled by anger, Orca ran in front of the boy, and her sister shot her. The shots bounced off harmlessly.

"You," Orca and her sister snarled in unison. Orca punched her sister in the face. She punched her back. Orca kicked her down. The inkling boy finished her off, leaving a puddle of purple ink.

She turned to him.

Roy was confused. Majorly confused. An octoling had beat down an elite octoling.  _Wow._ And then he had splatted the elite.  _Double wow._ And now she was looking at me.  _PLEASE don't splat me._

"Hey, you okay?" the octoling asked.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Roy stuttered. "Well, nice meetin' ya!" He turned to leave.

"Wait, don't leave!" the octoling shouted. Roy turned around, hesitantly.

"Yes?"

"Can I...get your name first?"

"Okay," Roy replied. "My name is Roy." He smiled, shaking her hand. "Nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, too, Roy," the octoling replied. "My name is Orca." She smiled as well.

_Orca the octoling, huh? I like that name._

"Your name is very pretty," Roy commented.

"Thank you," Orca replied, blushing.

"Well, nice meeting you!" said Roy. "I gotta get home." He waved. "Make sure the other inklings are safe for me, okay?"

Roy looked at the sky.  _I need to hurry,_ he thought.  _It will be dark soon, and that's when HE could find me. Gotta run, gotta run..._

 


	3. Chapter 3

The thought of Roy lingered in Orca's head. She had to admit, he was adorable, but not in a babyish way. He looked about her age, even though he was about an inch taller than her.

_Then again, I'm short..._

After the match, Kelp Dome was no longer a stage. It was replaced by Mahi-Mahi Resort while the Dome was blocked off for maintenance. Some of the Inkopolis officials came over to check it out, declared lock down, and checked for any traps or explosives the octolings could have left behind.

Orca was put under special orders to secure the area.

It wasn't hard. Not at all.

She walked around the whole stage, checking for ink-mines, pressure activated bomb throwers, and other stuff like that. She didn't find anything, so she went back to Octo Valley, thinking of Roy the whole way there.

The Captain looked deep in thought when she got there.

"Lassie, I think we need a new agent," he said. "Agents 1 and 2 already have a lot on their hands..." He trailed off.

"Captain, I know who could be our agent," Orca replied. "There was a boy named Roy who did pretty well in the octoling attack over at Kelp Dome. He'd be perfect!"

* * *

Meilie walked thought the plaza. All of the inklings were talking about the inkstrike. It was even on the news! Meilie smirked. She loved all the attention.

She turned on her iSquid and checked the news.  _There were octolings in a turf war? Weird..._

She looked up at the slowly darkening sky. The neon blue marks on her body lit up, one by one. A couple inklings stared at her.

At first, Meilie thought it was just curiosity, until one of them ran up to her and asked, "Are you the one who set off the inkstrike?!"

She simply stood there for a moment, then replied, "Yup, it was me! And it was totally worth it!" The inkling was silent for a moment, but then he ran off in a hurry.

_Heh._

She walked around the plaza for a few minutes, simply admiring the scenery, but she snapped back to reality when she heard sirens.

_Oops._

* * *

Meilie sat in the cell and sighed. They were keeping her here for  _three hours_. The cops would have just waited for parental release or whatever you call it, but Meilie's parents lived all the way in Inkia, where Firefly Squids were a common species. She remembered having to explain this to the cops like it had happened five minutes ago.

Because it did.

"You realize how much damage you caused, right?"

" _Damage?! What damage?!_ It was just a harmless  _prank!_ "

They were having none of it. And so it went, back and forth, until the officer got annoyed and left the room.

She lied on the floor and stared at the ceiling. She was bored.  _Real_ bored.

_I guess this is one of those moments where you reflect on your life, 'n' stuff..._

She sighed and rolled onto her back.

This was going to be a long three hours.

* * *

As Roy ran, his thoughts kept wandering to his past. Or, more specifically, his father.

The memories of his mother were so blurry that he couldn't even remember her face. She died when he was two, leaving him with his father. They all said her death was an accident.

But he knew his dad did it.

Everyone thought his dad was a kind and caring father, but Roy didn't believe any of that bullshark. His dad was...relatively okay for a few years after his mother's death, but around his seventh birthday, Roy started to notice that his father was changing. He was getting... _violent._ Some nights, he was downstairs, screaming at nothing.

One night, he decided to go down the stairs and figure out what was wrong.

"Daddy?" he had asked. "What are you screaming at?"

He turned to Roy, eyes narrowed, but his face broke into a crazed smile as soon as their gazes met.

"D-Daddy?"

"Don't worry, Roy," his father said, walking towards him. "Everything's fine."

All Roy remembered after that was pain, pain, pain, for another few years. But when he turned twelve, that's when things got completely out of control.

"Dad, I'm home," he said one day after school. He didn't know exactly  _why_ he said it, but he probably was trying to act like everything was normal.

"Good!" he yelled from the other room. "Now bring some drinks! One for me and one for my  _lovely_ guest!" Roy grabbed the drinks obediently, and brought them into the living room. His father was sitting on a couch, right next to a particularly nasty looking woman.

"Why, Nick!" the woman asked. "Who is this?"

"Oh, that's my son, Roy," he replied.

"Well, well, it's nice to meet you, Roy," she said, a displeased look in her eye. Roy could tell she was forcing a smile.

"What are you waiting for?" his father bellowed impatiently. "Give us the drinks, boy!"

Roy set down the drinks hesitantly and turned to leave.

"Wait, Nick, honey, why doesn't Roy stay in here with us?" the woman said menacingly. "He'll get to know is daddy's new  _girlfriend_ better, right?"

"Why, of course, my dear!" Roy's father replied. "Get back in here, Roy!" Roy sighed, and sat down in a chair.

"Why, Roy, I forgot to introduce myself," the woman crooned. "I'm Roxanne, but you will call me 'Mama!'"

"I'm sorry, but I'm not calling you Mama," Roy replied, a hint of sarcasm laced in his voice.

Roxanne stood up suddenly. "You will do  _exactly_ as we tell you, young man!" Roy got up and ran, his dad chasing after.

Roy was caught and punished... _painfully._

Two months ago. About to run away...

"Roy, bring us breakfast now!" Roy's father shouted from downstairs. He and "Mama" have gotten worse. Roy had a black eye and multiple bruises from being beaten. He hadn't been to school in a month, and had just about reached the level of suicide.  _Anything is better than this._

About three months ago, he had found out that "Mama" had a son named Gordon. He wasn't quite as bad, but it still added insult to injury.

He walked into the kitchen with their breakfast.

"Roy! What took you so long?" big "brother" Gordon complained.

"I'm sorry," Roy moaned. "I couldn't find the bread." It was true, it was hard to find anything anymore in that kitchen.

"Well, next time, find it faster!" Roxanne snapped. Roy served them, then sat down at the table.

"Roy, Mama and I have to tell you something," Roy's father said suddenly, a smile on his face. It would have been a nice smile, in a different context.

"We're getting married!" Roxanne finished.

_Married._ The word echoed in Roy's head.

"No," he muttered.

"What was that?" Roxanne snarled.

" _NO!_ " Roy screamed. " _You can't marry her!_ " He gripped his dad's shoulders and shook him. " _You can't marry that sea witch, I'll DIE if you do! And that son of a squitch over there,_ " he pointed to Gordon, " _will help Roxanne KILL ME! PLEASE!_ "

Roxanne stood up, fury etched on her face. " _SEA WITCH?! You are dead, honey! D. E. A. D. DEAD!_ " She grabbed Roy and took him outside, beating him senseless.

She left him outside, and left a few minutes later with Gordon following her. Gordon kicked Roy hard in the ribs as he walked by, before getting in a car with Roxanne and driving away.

Roy blacked out.

When he woke up, he was still lying on the ground outside. He got up, pain jolting through his bones, and limped inside. His dad was on the floor, surrounded by cans of alcohol. He limped up the stairs and grabbed a suitcase he had already packed. He walked back downstairs, and stole some of the money from a jar in the kitchen.

His father looked, but didn't stop him.

 

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

After Orca had suggested him, it was her job to find him.

She scoured the phone books, looking for R. Evershore. Two of them lived in apartments and another lived in a mansion. Orca crossed out the mansion dude and checked the other two locations. The first location didn't give her any luck; one look inside and you'd know it wasn't Roy's place. It was covered in posters for heavy metal bands and had two or three guitars.

But the second was perfect. Orca scouted the area, hiding in a tiny spot of ink. She saw Roy, with a sort of wistful expression on his face, enter the apartment. She waited until the coast was clear and then sneaked up to the door and rang the loud, reverberating doorbell.

Roy appeared on the other side of the door. "Hey-" he stared.

"Sorry I have to do this to you," Orca interrupted, "but the fate of inkling kind rests on your shoulders." She pulled out a sack and shoved him in. He was hard to contain, but she managed to keep him in there all the way back to Octo Valley. There, she let him out.

He walked out of the sack gingerly.

"Aye, Orca, this young lad will do us fine," the Captain agreed.

* * *

"Okay! That's it! I'm done! It's too boring!" Meilie said to herself. "I can't take this!" She had only been in the cell for twenty minutes, and it was already driving her nuts. She turned into a squid and swam through the bars.

_They must think I'm stupid or something..._

She walked out the door. No one seemed to care.

She walked around Inkopolis, trying to find something to boost her mood. She stared at the grate that she had wanted to go in for so long. She turned into a squid and jumped in.

_What's the worst that could happen?_

She was falling into a dark hole. Her tentacles lit up, but it didn't help her see anything because she was going so fast. She popped out of another grate, and saw three people; some old geezer, an inkling boy, and...

An  _octoling?!_

She forced herself to stay calm and not gasp, but it was difficult. Insanely difficult. She turned into a squid and shuffled over to another grate, this one shaped like a teapot. She jumped in.

She popped out on some sort of floating platform. She got a good chance to examine the surroundings. She looked up. What appeared to be the sky wasn't the sky at all, but a ton of screens with a sky-like pattern. She peeked over the edge of the platform.

Water. Nothing but water. And it wasn't screens, either.

She opened up her backpack and grabbed her ink tank. She stuck it on her back, and heard the satisfying  _slurp_ as it secured itself. She grabbed her N-Zap '89 out of her bag, too. She stuck her iSquid in her pocket, then kicked her bag off the platform. It was empty, and she wouldn't need it.

She ran forward, shooting ink then swimming through it. Two octarians appeared. She shot and splatted them quite easily, which surprised her. She kept going.

Meilie was surprised. This was fun. Really fun. She was splatting octarians left and right, which was really satisfying, in a way. She shot the wall of a tower, then swam up it. When she got to the top, she saw a light-bulb-shaped shield, surrounding a Zapfish.

"Whoa!" she exclaimed. "I didn't know these still existed! I thought they stopped catching them once they found the Great Zapfish!" She shot the shield, and it broke. She grabbed the Zapfish and did a little victory pose, just for fun.

She felt the pulling sensation that happened whenever she entered or exited a turf war. She was on top of the grate now, with the Zapfish in her hand, all three people she saw earlier staring at her.

She readied her N-Zap.

This couldn't end well.

* * *

Roy noted how abnormal this day was getting. One, pervy pink squid. Two, octoling invasion. Three, squidnapped by friendly octoling. Four, asked to be agent. Five, he said yes. Six, the inkling that just popped out of a kettle.

"Umm, Orca, who's that?" Roy asked, pointing to the inkling.

"No idea."

The inkling readied her weapon. An N-Zap. Looks like they were going to have to fight.

Or did they?

Roy stepped forward. "Hi, I'm, um, Roy. Nice to meet you." He stuck his hand out for a handshake. He noticed that certain spots on the inkling were glowing. He recognized the color. "You're the one who dropped the inkstrike during that turf war match, aren't you?"

"Yep!" said the inkling. "What, were you in that match or something?"

"Nah," Roy replied. "I just heard about it around the plaza." The inkling shook Roy's hand.

"I'm Meilie," she said.

"Nice to meet you Meilie," Roy replied. "What brings you to Octo Valley?"

"I escaped from jail," Meilie answered.

"O-Okay," Roy said, a bit confused.

"Aye, bucko, put the hero suit on for me," the Captain interruped. "I need to see how it fits." He shoved the hero suit in Roy's face and pushed him into the shack.

"Umm...Captain?" Roy asked. "Could you please leave so I can change?"

"Okay, lad," the Captain replied, stepping outside.

Roy changed into the hero suit. It fit perfectly. He walked outside.

"Aye, bucko!" the Captain said. "You are now an official member of the new Squidbeak Splatoon!" Roy smiled. It felt good to be a part of something like this.

"Awesome," he said.

"Now, lad, I need you to go to kettle number two and get a Zapfish from there, okay?" the Captain asked.

"Yes, Captain!" Roy saluted awkwardly, and jumped into the kettle.

* * *

Kettle three. Roy stood in front of the Zapfish. He grabbed it, teleporting back to the Valley. Orca and Meilie, who decided to stay behind, had fallen asleep.

_It IS nearly ten o'clock..._

"Okay, bucko, only one more kettle, okay? Then it's time for you to get some rest," said the Captain.

"Yes, Captain," Roy replied. "What's even in the next kettle? Captain?"

The Captain had fallen asleep standing up. Roy chuckled.  _I'm pretty sure that whatever it is, I'll be fine._ He walked over to the kettle and jumped in.

The second he arrived at the location, he noticed all the differences in the layout of the dome.  _This dome isn't even a dome. It's an arena._ He turned into a squid, slithered onto the launch pad in front of him, and launched into the arena.

There was a weird, giant cube in the middle of the arena. Roy walked toward it, only stopping when the ground started to shake.

The cube stood up.

"Oh. My. Cod." The cube monster roared. Roy started inking as much turf as he could, while the monster chased him. The monster got an idea, and jumped onto its face, trying to crush Roy. As it landed, he noticed platforms on the side of it that lead up to a giant tentacle. He climbed up the platforms and shot the tentacle until it popped.

"Woomy!" he shouted, launching off of the cube. The monster got back up, and started chasing him again.

This time, when it lands on its face again, the platforms on the side are moving. It was still easy to climb up, and Roy popped the tentacle again. Now the cube looked really mad, the platforms on it's sides still moving, but the wires underneath were now electrified.

It ran faster as it chased Roy this time. He actually felt scared. As the cube face landed to crush him again, Roy tripped whilst attempting to move out of the way. The thing landed on his legs, breaking them. Roy stifled a yell, swearing under his breath. He didn't actually have bones, but pain shot up his body.

He shot the cube's side with the hero-shot, climbing to the top as a squid. He popped the tentacle for the final time, super jumping off the cube, and it exploded into a tidal wave of dark blue ink, its panels shooting off into the darkness.

Now that the thing was dead, Rot decided to check his legs.  _Not good_. He couldn't stand up. He had no idea what was going to happen. He was stuck there until somebody came to help.

"Oh, my!" said a voice. "I spy an inkling with my goggled eyes!" Roy twisted his body to look at the source of the voice. An octoling with familiar looking seaweed in her hair. "Hello, inkling. I remember you. You splatted me back at the Kelp Dome." She kicked Roy's hero-shot across the ground.

"Roy, was it?" she continued. "Prepare to have some fun." She grabbed him by the tentacles, and Roy stifled a shout.

_This isn't good._

"Hey, inkling, you're kinda cute, you know that?"

"I am  _not cute_."

"Look! He speaks!" She jerked him closer. "Now I'm gonna make you  _scream_." She kicked him in the stomach. Roy didn't scream. He knew it was what she wanted, and he wouldn't give in. Not yet.

"Tough little cutie we got here!" She stepped on his right leg, the one that had been crushed. He couldn't help but let out a pained yelp. "Ha! More pain is on the way!" She kicked him repeatedly in the stomach and legs, and Roy could do nothing but scream. He knew he was giving her what she wanted, but it hurt too much. He felt his consciousness slipping.

"Goodnight, inkling." It was the last thing he heard before everything went dark.

 

 

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

Orca woke up the next day in Octo Valley, and realized she'd fallen asleep. She pushed up from the ground and walked over the Captain, who looked worried.

"What's wrong, Captain?"

"Roy's not back yet, I've got a feeling that he's not okay, lassie. I would go check on him myself, but I'm not as young as I used to be."

"I'll go find him, then."

Orca ran to the boss kettle and jumped in. The octostomp was gone, but so was Roy. She looked around, checking every bit of the arena.

"Hello, Orca," a menacing voice echoed. Orca turned to see her sister, with Roy unconscious at her feet.

"Oh my cod, Anemone!" She felt weird saying her sister's name for the first time in a while. Anemone flinched when she heard it. "What the shell did you do to him?"

"Well, he got his legs hurt, so I decided to give him some rest." Anemone kicked Roy again. Orca gritted her teeth.

"Well, if you'd be so kind, hand him over," she ordered forcefully.

"Why would I listen to you?" Anemone replied. "I'm the one with seaweed. I'm the younger sister, the one mom and dad always thought wouldn't be as good as you. And now I'm an elite, and you're helping this adorable inkling. He's so weak, he'd never be able to get back the Great Zapfish." Anemone crouched down and  _kissed Roy on the cheek._

"Oh my cod, Anemone!" Orca screamed. "You're the most psychopathic, nasty, despicable, disgusting person I know!" She grabbed Roy from the floor and hoisted him on her back. "We're getting out of here."

"Not so fast!" Anemone called. Orca turned around and became face to face with a whole squadron of elites. Before she could react, something hit her from behind, causing her to black out.

* * *

Meilie walked around in circles around the fourth kettle.

_What to do, what to do..._

According to Captain Cuttlefish, Orca had gone to look for Roy while Meilie had been sleeping.  _I always wake up at the worst possible times..._

Now they were both missing. She had asked him if she could go look for them, but his reply hurt her deeply.

_Sorry, lassie, you're just not very experienced in combat. Agent Double and Agent 3 are tough. They don't need your help._

She kicked the kettle as hard as she could.  _It's not fair! I'm tough! I'm a level 42! Much higher than that noob of a level 20!_

She stormed up to Captain Cuttlefish.

"Listen, you old geezer," she snapped. "I'm looking for them whether you like it or not, and you can't stop me!"

He sighed. "Okay, lassie. If I can't stop ya, we might as well get you suited up," he said. Meilie was surprised she was able to convince him that easily, but she jumped up, satisfied at her small victory.

* * *

She looked down at the hero suit she was wearing. White sneakers, black legwarmers, elbow length white shirt, and a black tanktop over it, along with a neon blue vest. Her headphones looked like the ones Roy wore, except white.

She tossed her black hero-shot above her head and caught it with her other hand.

"Agent Firefly is ready to roll!" she cheered. Mischievous thoughts started to creep into her head. If the FBI knew she was part of a world saving organization, she would never get arrested again.

_I could pull as many pranks as I want!_

She shook those thoughts off. This wasn't the time.

"I'm off!" she said.

"Knock 'em dead, lassie!" the Captain cheered. Meilie nodded, jumping into the kettle.

She appeared on a tiny floating platform. There was a launch pad in front of her, and she turned into a squid to use it. She launched onto the small battle arena.

Magenta ink. Magenta ink everywhere. Nothing but it and...

An abandoned hero-shot. She froze. She knew who that belonged to.  _Roy!_

Her head was spinning. Her tentacles were glowing abnormally bright. She felt like her heart would pop out of her chest and explode. She recovered quickly, though, her recklessness taking over.

She searched the area, and found an open hatch. She jumped in without a second thought. She remembered the sensation she felt when she first entered Octo Valley. It was a lot more scary this time around, but the scariness of it all thrilled her.

_I'm coming to get you, Roy..._

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

_Ugh, where am I?_

Roy remembered what had just happened. He opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. He was in a small glass cell, but he wasn't alone. Orca was lying next to him on the ground.

Outside the cell, there were posters of DJ Octavio  _everywhere_ , and his terrible music played over an unseen intercom. The room itself was empty, save for Orca and himself. He looked over at Orca. She had a bump on the back of her head.

He shifted closer to her. She was still unconscious. He looked her over. He was glad she wasn't hurt too badly. He would have hated it if she were to get badly injured.

"Orca?" He poked her. She was out cold. He felt bad. It was  _his_ fault she was here. Maybe if he had run faster, she would have been safe in Octo Valley.

_Or maybe if I had run slower, and just got myself crushed, then there would be no more Roy to make stupid mistakes._

_I can't think like that! If I do, I'll lose spirit! And if I lose spirit now, we won't ever get out of here!_

He looked over at Orca again. She was wearing her octo-goggles. He reached over and took them off.  _Orca's pretty,_ he thought.

He noticed something that he hadn't noticed before.  _Those stupid octolings forgot about my headset!_

He turned on the headset.  _Only ten percent battery. Better make it count._

"Hello? Anyone there? This is Roy." I wait. No answer, only static.

"Come on, come on, work!" He tried again. "This is Roy. Orca is with me. We are in a room with too many Octavio posters, and his annoying music is playing." Still static.

_Great. Just great._

He tried again. "This is Agent 3! I am with Agent Double in a glass cell in a small room with too many DJ Octavio posters and his annoying music is playing on an endless loop!" He said it louder this time, and was relieved when he heard a voice over the speakers, but his relief quickly turned to anxiety when he heard what the voice had to say.

"Nice try, inkling!" It was an octoling. "The first message may have came through, but  _no one_ heart it, so it doesn't eve matter! The headset will be taken away from you shortly."

 _Darn it._ _Goodbye, headset._ He decided that it wouldn't be good if the octarians listened to the recorded conversations on the headset. He took it off, dropped it on the ground, and smashed it with his foot.

He sighed, and turned to look at Orca again.  _What's going to happen now?_ Orca looked like she'd be awake soon.  _That's good. We can think of escape plans together._

_Don't worry...we WILL escape. Don't know how yet, but we will..._

* * *

Orca's eyes opened and saw the ceiling. The  _glass_ ceiling.

She sat bolt upright. Roy was right next to her, awake. She stood up, her head still throbbing, but she was driven by panic. She took in her surroundings.

"Squit," she muttered, then turned to Roy. "We're in a prison building called Octavio's labyrinth. Here, they put everyone in a glass cell with nothing but a bite of bread or a sip of water for three days and then execute them. This glass is six inches thick, and this steel is ten inches thick." She kicked the glass wall to prove her point. "The chances of escaping are one to one-hundred trillion. When I wasn't even in humanoid form yet, they taught us about this place. Octavio comes down to taunt every prisoner every day and-"

She didn't get to finish the sentence, as Octavio was suddenly outside the cell, ginning maniacally at the both of them.

"And now I've jinxed us," Orca finished in a whisper.

"Hello, little traitor, hello agent 3," Octavio said menacingly. Roy looked like he wanted to say something, but Orca clamped her hand over his mouth.

 _Don't say a word,_  she mouthed. Roy nodded.

"Quiet now, are we?" Octavio chuckled. "Well, if you don't plead to come out, I guess we'll leave you there until you beg, and then you can come out and get executed." He laughed evilly, and walked off.

"Don't listen to him," Orca said. "All he says is lies."

_Well, I assured Roy, but I have to assure myself, too. What if we really never get out of here?_

* * *

Meilie landed in a circular room, with three passageways going in different directions. There were rainbow colored lights all over the place, bad dubstep, and autographed posters of Octavio. Meilie turned on her headset.

"Hey, ya old geezer!" she said into the microphone. "You read me? I think I found the Octarian base!"

"Great job, Agent Firefly!" said the Captain over the speakers. "Agent 3 and Double are probably here, so keep those young eyes of yours open!"

"Okay!"

She turned off her headphones just as she heard someone say, "Hello?" She took off through the passageway directly in front of her, not bothering to be stealthy.

Two octolings turned to her as she ran. Meilie skidded to a halt. She snickered, deciding what to say next.

"Hey, look!" she exclaimed sarcastically. "It's the famed octo-noobs! Yaaaay!" The two octolings gave her an angry look before firing ink at her. She jumped out of the way of their gun shots, and shot them from behind until they were nothing but neon blue puddles.

 _Sorry, not sorry,_ she thought. She chuckled.

Meilie kept going, this time making sure to be stealthy. Whenever an octoling came across her path, she would send a seeker at them and splat them. She had gotten enough Power Eggs during her time in kettle one to get them.

This place was like a maze. There were forks  _everywhere_. The majority of them turned out to be dead ends. Occasionally, Meilie would find a door, but all of the ones she'd seen so far were locked.

_What a drag._

But then she realized something, and a light bulb went off in her head. She began searching the walls for air vents. She found one near the ceiling, inked the wall, and climbed into the vent.

She made her way through the vent until she found an opening. She jumped out, glad to be out of the stuffy environment, only to be surrounded by tons of octolings.

"Somebody get DJ Octavio!" one of them yelled. "There's an inkling here!" Meilie took a fighting stance.

"Go get your stupid DJ! He can't stop me!"

With that, she began to shoot.

 

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

"So, let me get this straight," said Tramp. "Octoling invasion, some double agent squid and this 'agent 3' were captured, and I was never called to help?" Irritated as she was with the current situation, she had no choice but to stay on the sidelines. She wasn't a known agent except to Agents 1 and 2, and, of course, the Captain.

"Actually, the double agent is an octoling," Agent 1 replied.

"I thought they were called octarians?" Tramp questioned.

"Forget what they're called," Agent 2 countered. "All we know is that two of our agents are gone and the Captain told us to tell you to keep on your guard."

"Why call me now, of all the chances you've had before?" Tramp crossed her arms over her chest and huffed in annoyance. It was no fun being left behind on stuff.

"Cause you're the best of the best?" Callie said, shrugging.

"Cause you're the last one who could help," Marie answered.

"Sheesh, thanks for being blunt, Marie," Tramp said, rolling her eyes. "Well, I guess I could help...what about you two, though?" She took a sip of her punch flavored juice pouch.

"Well, we'll continue being as awesome as we are, to keep every inkling distracted, of course!" Callie cheerfully fist bumped the air.

"Agents 5, 6, 7, and 8 are already informed, so they'll keep doing what they do best," Marie said, pulling Callie's hand down.

"Those four?" Tramp asked. "So that means new clothes and weapons, huh?"

The two sisters nodded in unison.

"Well then," Tramp said, standing up. "Agent Infinity, out!" She grinned, running out the exit of the tower.

* * *

Orca had gotten really bored of just sitting around. Like, really bored. She'd been sitting for hours on end. She scooted over to Roy, her amber eyes fixed on his.

"Well, we're stuck here together," she said. "We might as well talk."

"Yeah, we might as well," said Roy. "But talk about what?"

"We could talk about when we were younger," Orca suggested. "I gotta admit, as a toddler, I was the favorite daughter. Spoiled rotten. I can...sorta see why Anemone wants revenge." She chuckled. Roy sighed.

"I was an only child," he said. "I can't remember my mother that much. I remember she had a pretty voice, but that's about it. The adults that knew her told me I had more of my mother than my father in me. And to make a long story short, my father started abusing me when I was seven, and kept abusing me. When I was twelve, he got a girlfriend, and she abused me, too." Roy was rocking back and forth on his hands, a pained expression on his face.

"That girlfriend's name was Roxanne," he continued. "She made me call her 'Mama.' If I didn't call her Mama, she would hurt me. Five months ago, I learned she had a son, and he hurt me, too. Two months ago, my father and Roxanne said they were getting married. I made Roxanne mad, and she broke up with my father, but not before doing some final damage. After that, I ran away. There's my squity childhood." Roy was rocking back and forth very quickly now, and it looked like he might cry.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Maybe I shouldn't have asked..." Orca trailed off quietly, but found her voice again. "For a long time, I've never liked the octarians' ways. When I was at least five, I started doing things differently. Everyone was about seriousness and killing inklings. I didn't get it, so I was bullied and shunned. When I was about, I dunno, ten maybe, I rebelled and joined the Squidbeak Splatoon as a double agent. For the longest time, Octavio didn't know I was working for the Captain in secret. And now..." She sighed, looking away. "He's found out."

"I'm sorry," said Roy. "I didn't know. Ten seems early for a person to join the army. You must have  _really_ not liked their ways." He looked at her with respect in his eyes. "I couldn't run away from home. Until I was fourteen, I just couldn't. And that was running away. You joined the  _army_. You are probably one of the bravest people I know."

"They start training us at age six," Orca continued. "Some of the really brilliant octolings can join at age nine or something. The reason I was the 'favorite child' of the family, according to Anemone, was because I joined at age ten and she joined at age eleven. But it didn't really matter, anyways. But, thanks, still."

"Your welcome," said Roy. They sat in silence for a second, but they heard something over the annoying music. They turned their heads to see two octolings talking very quickly.

"So where is that inkling again?" one asked.

"In sector four," said the other. "We must deal with her quickly." They both ran off.

"Orca, did you hear that?" said Roy "There's an inkling here!" Orca's eyes widened.

"Do you think it's Meilie?" She jumped to her feet and looked through the glass at the passing octolings.

"Yeah, I think it is!" Roy beamed. "Looks like we might actually get out of here, Orca!"

* * *

Captain Cuttlefish had told Tramp where to go. He must've remembered from his younger years, Tramp guessed, since he had given her exact coordinates.  _Hopefully he's right about it,_ she thought,  _then again, that old squid still has skill._

She had made her way into the labyrinth, and so far, no type of enemy was around. No sign of them, just a few of their weapons here and there. She hoped she wasn't too late.

Her ears perked up slightly, and in an instant, she had turned to her squid form and slid into the vents. She stayed in the vents for a while, quietly listening to the hurrying footsteps coming closer and closer.

Eventually, they all passed right by, and she heard three of them argue over how one inkling was fighting back against, basically, an army.

_Hmm, my type of friend!_

But making friends wasn't the task at hand, Tramp still needed to find the other agents.

_Oh, wait..._

_Squit! That's probably the one that was sent here!_

With a shake of her head, she wriggled through the vents, hoping to find the right path.

_I guess Gramp's orders won't work for me. Then again, when do I ever listen to anyone?_

She had to do something, though, she couldn't leave that inkling to do all the work, but the octarian and the inkling that were caught were somewhere else, probably in the opposite direction of where those octarians from earlier were headed.

_What to do...what to do..._

_If I only had some of my jams, that would help me think straight...wait..._

_That DJ dude hates our type of music, right?_

With that in mind, she didn't even notice she was about to slip out of the vents. With a small thud on the cold floor, she stood up using her two tentacles.

"Well, well," she said to herself.  _Quite the coincidence of ending up here, I'd say!_

She wriggled her way under the huge closed doors, knowing exactly where she was.

"Aha!"  _I'm right! The communication room!_

It's what Octavio uses to talk to his followers. He wasn't around, but she needed to be quick. She turned back to her humanoid form and slid into the oversized seat Octavio usually sat in, spinning it around just for fun.

"Alright, then," Tramp murmured, pressing a few buttons here and there, turning on all communications. "Time to start the party!" With that, she raised the communicators to full volume and started her remixed music.


	8. Chapter 8

Orca and Roy sat there, feeling bored, when all of a sudden, Octavio's torturing music suddenly switched to a remix of the Squid Sister's Final Boss song. Orca couldn't help dancing like a crazy person. Roy stared at her the whole time, like she was an idiot. Finally, they realized that someone had hijacked the system or something, because the glass door to their cell clicked open.

" _Freedom!_ " Orca yelled, almost running into the glass part of the wall. Roy jumped up, and ran after Orca. She ran around the building, angrily punching all the octarians, while Roy followed. His legs still hurt a bit, but thanks to inklings' slow regeneration ability, but other than that, he felt fine. After aimlessly running around, they ran into a room and found Orca's octo-shot.

"Yes!" she shouted, picking up her octo-shot. "C'mon, Roy, let's go find the source of the music!" Roy screeched to a halt.

"No," he said, looking at Orca. "I don't have a weapon,  _and_ there's another inkling fighting somewhere, and I'm thinking it might be Meilie. I'm looking for her. Not the person doing the music. Sorry." He turned for the door.

"Roy, don't be stupid, finding the music source is smarter," said Orca. Roy turned back around.

"No, helping the person fighting is!"

"No! Roy, the music is much smarter to find! Stop being an idiot and get over here!" She knew she sounded petty.

"No! I'm finding the inkling who is fighting!" Roy said angrily. "That is that!" He started to walk off.

"Says the boy who couldn't defeat the Octostomp without wounding his legs and getting captured," Orca muttered.

"What was that?" Roy whipped around. "Are you calling me  _weak_?"

"In a way, yes!" said Orca, looking ticked off. "Get over here and help me find the music!"

"If I'm weak, then you won't  _need_ my help!" Roy argued, then stomped off. "Go find your music. I'm looking for Meilie. Once he rounded the corner, he made a break for it.

_Weak? I'm not weak. Correction, you are weak, Roy. You are. Cute Roy! Stupid Roy! Weak Roy!_

He saw a ground of octarians and hid in a crate. As they passed, he noticed an inktank and inkbrush at the bottom.

"Yes!" he whispered to himself. He hooked the inktank up and attached the brush to it.  _Let's go!_ He sped through the halls, leaving a thin line of blue ink behind. Soon enough, he reached the heart of the base, where Meilie was fighting. He stepped out into the light, inkbrush at the ready.

* * *

Coral went through the boxes in her apartment, looking for something that belonged to her dad, his hero-shot, which he used during his times with the legendary Squidbeak Splatoon.

Ever since she moved to Inkopolis, she had never really bothered to sort things out, except for the things she needed.

_This week has gone way crazier than my first time here. Let's see...octoling invasion, some neon colored inkstrike in the middle of a turf war I was in, and more agents?_

She dug through all the junk and weapons she had in the boxes.

_Okay, well, honestly, I don't even know why I mentioned 'agent' there. Probably because of the octoling that walked into the apartment and squidnapped a bot that lives here, saying something about the fate of the world depending on him..._

She continued to look through a second box, before hearing someone scream about firefly inklings. She flinched as she heard it.

"Man...what's got them so hyped up?" she asked herself, rubbing her ear. After searching for a while, which was about three hours or so, she ended up finding a folded note.

"Stupid bills..." she said, about to throw the paper out the apartment window, before she noticed it had her name written on it. She raised a brow, and opened up the note. The paper was old, and had a brownish tinge to it. It smelled like seaweed, thanks to the bits of seaweed on it.

"Well, let's see then," she said.

* * *

Steel had just gotten word from Tramp.  _For the love of cod, she just loves to get into trouble. What am I supposed to do now? All I can do is talk to her through the communicator she has in her ear..._

"Steel, they're going to break through the door any second now!" he heard her yell, trying to get him to hear her through the loud music.

_Sheesh, she must be torturing those poor octarians._

"Just give me some time, Tramp," Steel replied. "Get the USB I gave you and put it in the electrical data processor."

"Uhhhh..."

He sighed, shaking his head. "The electric brain...?"

"English, please, Sage-"

" _The computer! Put the USB in the computer!_ " he yelled in frustration. He could literally hear the realization hit her. It took a while, but she put the USB where it was supposed to go, and Steel's Squidtop started getting information.

"Alright, Tramp," he said. "If you could hold on for about ten minutes, I should get the right path for you and the other agents."

"I don't think I could last ten minutes here," she replied, "let alone the two inklings down there..."

"Down where...?"

"I got the cells to open," she explained, "and only one of the agents came out to the middle. He's helping the one who came to save them. I think they're Meilie and Roy...they're trying to fight off the waves of octarians right now." Steel started to hear banging on the door from her side, and it was becoming louder.

"Alright, give me five minutes, but I cannot guarantee complete safety and surveillance to you guys."

"That's fine, I know you can pull if off, anyways!"

_She...believes in me...? She might get killed if I make just one mistake..._

"Then I can't be letting you down now!" Steel shouted. With that, he tried his best to get as much information as possible from Octavio's super computer. It wasn't much of a hard task, it just took so long to transfer data. He was able to get the layout of the area first.

Over on Tramp's end, the door was about to open. She could see the dents the Octarians were making in the door.

_Sheesh, what are they using?_

She would have to give one of the agents the USB if this didn't go so well. She turned her attention back to the window to see the two agents fighting off the octarians. They were pretty good, she had to admit, but not good enough, it seemed. They were looking pretty tired from her point of view.

"Hey, Steel?" she shouted into her communicator. "Any chance that this computer sets off any traps?" She heard a crackle of static as Steel spoke.

"Most likely," he said, "but let me check real quick on which buttons you could press without making the place explode."

Tramp gasped dramatically. "How could I  _ever_ make this place explode?"

Steel scoffed. "Well, for one, you made the electric box from Flounder Heights explode by whacking it with your roller-"

"Well, sure-"

"You made the UFO crash into the Valley-"

"Yeah, but-"

"You also broke logic by setting the pool in Mahi-Mahi Resorts on fire-"

"May I also remind you that I sort of broke physics, too, by staying in mid-air for over a minute?" Tramp pointed out, chuckling. She heard Steel sigh.

"There must be some logical reason behind that."

"Sorry, I don't get along with logic, nor physics, apparently," Tramp said with a shrug. She noticed the banging on the door had stopped. She heard someone lightly knocking on the door.

"Knock knock, anyone in there?" said a voice. "I'm hoping for another agent."

"Who was that?" Steel asked over the communicator.

"I think one of the agents," Tramp murmured, walking over to the door. She pressed a big button to open it. She blinked as the door slid open to reveal an octoling, and the other octolings on the floor, all knocked out.

"What did you do to them?" Tramp asked. The octoling only shrugged.

"Punched them in their faces," she said. "Anyways, let's get out of here!" Tramp held up her hand as she walked back to the computer.

"Hold up," she said. "I need to finish here before I go." She pressed the button on her communicator. "Almost finished there, Steel?"

"Yeah, just about done, you can pull the USB out, now," he replied. Tramp did as he told, then stuffed it into the pocket of her hoodie. "Alright, now just press that big red button." She looked around for the button. It was easy to spot, and it was in a small case, too. She opened it up and pressed it.

She backed up as the computer suddenly shut down. All the lights in the communications room went out, as well as the lights outside.

"Uh, Steel?" Tramp asked. "What's going on?"

"Oh, nothing...to self destructing..."

" _WHAT?!_ " both Tramp and the octoling shouted in unison.

"You better run!"

Over the speakers, they heard, "Self destruct in T minus: five minutes." Tramp didn't have much time to react before the octoling grabbed her hand and ran.

 

 


	9. Chapter 9

"Well, that was a bust," said Coral as she finished the note. It was just some calculations and probably a grocery list, and something saying "The fate of Inkopolis depends on it." Already a few months here, yet still not even closer to finding where they were.

Later, Coral stood in the plaza, thinking.  _Will I even find what I've been searching for? Probably not._ She thought she might speed things up by going into the grate near the soda machine.

"Well, here goes," she said. She walked over and hopped in, holding her dad's weapon. It was dark, falling into Octo Valley, and she looked around the place. No one seemed to be around, so she guessed exploring wouldn't hurt. Besides, she had brought her charger, just in case.

She began roaming around the area. "I guess there's nothing to do but chill until something  _does_ happen." She got herself in a high spot, and stayed there, waiting.

* * *

The train to Inkopolis had taken a long time, but to Sapphire Seashot, it was worth it. It always was. She stood on top of the blue checkpoint on Hammerhead Bridge. It was blue VS orange this time, and she only had thre more points to go until she reached level twenty three. A loud speaker interrupted her thought process.

"Ready?" it said. As customary, the entire team shouted a "Yeah!"

"GO!"

The match was on. Sapphire had already gotten a couple yards from the checkpoint in only three seconds, and was shooting ink out of the Aerospray RG she was holding in her hand. It was the only weapon she would ever use, and it was her favorite. It was the fastest gun out there, and even though it wasn't very accurate, the amount of ground I was able to cover with it made up for the weapon's lack of accurate shots. She wasn't really aiming to splat others, anyway.

She was near the middle of the bridge when she saw an orange inkling. The inkling had a charger, so she was careful not to let the squid see her. A roller had already spotted her, though, so Sapphire laid down an ink mine. The roller hadn't seen her do that, so she kept charging at Sapphire. Sapphire only had so many points until her special was ready, and the timer only had two minutes left on it. She quickly filled up her special meter, and her tentacle-like hair started glowing. She pulled out a small tablet, and selected an area that seemed to be filled with mostly orange ink. She covered her ears. The inkstrike shot up into the sky, and Sapphire turned to splat the incoming roller before she had time to react.

The charger she had seen earlier was near the inkstrike, and was also splatted.

"One minute remaining!" the speaker boomed. Orange, despite her team's best efforts, was still ahead, and Sapphire could see a couple of them heading in her direction. She started running their way, splatting one of them. She managed to shake the other one off and hide in her ink, landing him in the ink mine she had placed earlier. A couple of her team mates shouted "Booyah!"

Twenty seconds left.

Sapphire only had so much time. She started shooting more ink, and managed to gain her special one more time.

Ten seconds left.

She got out her tablet again, aimed the inkstrike, and managed to pull her team back in the lead before the speaker yelled "Time!"

They had won. Sapphire leveled up.

Level twenty three.

_Twenty seven levels to go._

* * *

Lil' Woomy was playing a casual match of ranked battle.

_Heh, casual, yeah right..._

It was Rainmaker, her favorite. She ended up on the purple team, the opposing team being lime green. The map was Arowana Mall.

"Ready?" the speaker blared. Lil' Woomy glanced at her team as a sign that she was the leader of the group.

"GO!"

Lil' Woomy ran.

"Don't be a steamroller!" someone on her team yelled. She chuckled to herself.  _Like I would ever do that._ That's why she got the Carbon Roller Deco.

She eventually got to the Rainmaker and her team popped the bubble. Lil' Woomy grabbed the Rainmaker, but was soon splatted. She kept saying "Booyah" to signal her team, but they did absolutely nothing.

The green team grabbed the Rainmaker and took out half her team.

"This can't be good," she whispered to her teammate. He nodded his agreement.

Lil' Woomy's tentacles began to glow.  _I must have my seeker special!_ She activated it, throwing seekers everywhere. One of them hit the inkling with the Rainmaker, so he was splatted. Lil' Woomy let her teammate grab the Rainmaker this time, and trotted alongside him.

In the near distance, she heard the sound of an Inkzooka firing, and saw, to her horror, that it was being aimed at her teammate. She pushed him out of the way and let herself get splatted instead. As she was about to respawn, she saw him get by the Inkzooka anyways.

"What a waste," she whispered.

Before you could say "woomy," the other team had made it to their base and put the Rainmaker on the small tower.

"Oh, come on!" Lil' Woomy shouted. She watched as she dropped from an A to an A minus.

"NOOOOOO!" she shouted. She threw her roller onto the ground and sulked.

_Stinking inklings...they don't even know how to stay fresh!_

 

 


	10. Chapter 10

After the battle at Hammerhead, Sapphire walked outside to see another squid sulking. She had pale skin and blue eyes and was wearing the same Studio Headphones as Sapphire.

 _Must have just lost a battle or something..._ she thought. This is what always happened when any of her friends lost a battle, most notably ranked battles, where anyone could rank down if they lost. She was only rank C plus, so of  _course_ she knew how disappointing it could be. She walked over to the little squid, just to see if she was alright.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked. The squid turned around to look at me. She looked startled, but looked down.

"Yeah," she said. "Just lost a ranked battle and ranked down, that's all..."  _I knew it!_ Sapphire wanted to scream, but she managed to bit her tongue before her mouth did anything her brain didn't want it to do.

"Oh, okay," she said instead. "What's your name?"

"Oh," said the inkling. "My name's Lil' Woomy."  _Is that her real name, or a nickname? I'm not gonna lie, it's a nice name, but still..._

"I'm Sapphire!" she said. "Nice to meet you! Oh, and sorry about the ranked battle." She wanted to tell the girl that she was only a C plus on level twenty-five, but she didn't know if Lil' Woomy was lower on that scale than her, and then it would have looked like she was bragging, which she never wanted to do.

Needless to say, she was overreacting, and Lil' Woomy saw it, her expression changing to one of confused anxiety.

"So, anyway," said Sapphire, trying to change the subject, "have you heard about that neon blue inkstrike that crashed in the middle of a turf war a couple days ago?"

"No, I haven't...sounds pretty strange," said Lil' Woomy. "What else has been happening?"

"Well, rumor has it that there's been a friendly octoling around here," Sapphire replied. "But I personally don't really believe it."

What felt like hours later, Sapphire hopped onto the bus to get back to Arowana Mall, near where her apartment was. The sun was already going down, and her analog clock read...

" _Eight-thirty?!_ " Cue birds squawking outside and several crows flying away.

* * *

Lil' Woomy  _really_ didn't want to go back to her tiny apartment by Flounder Heights, but she began to walk home since it was the only thing to do. She ended up at her apartment eventually, but she didn't want to go in. She just wanted to hang out with her friends.

She ripped out her iSquid to call Sapphire, but then she saw the time.

"How is it already 11:45?!" she shouted. She placed her roller against the wall and went to bed.

She dreamed about her parent's death, as she always did. They told her to stay with her friends, and then they left. She would then wake up the next morning, all of her friends crowded around her, telling her that her parents wouldn't be coming back. She would begin to bawl and her friends would say all this stuff to comfort me.

She woke up with a start, covered in sweat, her face burning. She checked her iSquid to see what time it was.

"Only 6:30?" she groaned. "Why does that dream still haunt me to this day? I should be fine now. That happened eight years ago."

There was a loud crash. She jumped up, and saw that her roller had fallen over. She walked to it and stood it back up. She hopped into bed, thinking that she could fall asleep for just a little longer, but that didn't happen. She kept thinking about the dream. It scared her, keeping her up all night. She feared sleep.

She laid in bed, thinking about all the stuff Sapphire had told her. Inkstrike and a friendly octoling. She didn't think all that was true, but it didn't really matter. As long as she didn't get mixed up in all that nonsense.

It seemed as though her thoughts always brought her back to Sapphire.  _Are we friends now or something?_ She couldn't tell.  _I mean, we did just meet yesterday. She seemed nice._ Something inside her told her to trust the girl.

_I mean, I kinda like her! Not in a...like-like her kind of way, but she seems like a good inkling to be around. I just hope that she feels the same way. Just friends. Nothing more._

The more she thought about her, the more she wanted to see her. She didn't want to pester her, though, so she went to Inkopolis instead.

She hopped into the lobby to join a ranked battle. As soon as she joined, the match started. She had taken her Carbon Roller Deco, as it was practically the only weapon she ever used. She was on a team with a Wasabi Splattershot, an E-Liter 3K Scope, and a Custom Range Blaster.

"Ready?" the speaker blared. "GO!"

Right now, the battle was splat zones.  _I have the perfect weapon._ The two maps in rotation were Piranha Pit and Port Mackerel. The map right now was Piranha Pit. It was a hard map to do Splat Zone on. Lil' Woomy's team seemed alert, though, and they were in the other team's base, getting all the splats. She made sure that they kept the zones under control.

At one point, a sneaky inkling popped past her teammates, and into the splat zone. Lil' Woomy was right there, waiting for someone like them to appear. She waited until they got close, then went in for the splat.

"Haha!" she shouted. "You make it past my team, you mess with me!"

"Time!"

Her team had won.

She spent the rest of the day trying to get her rank back up to an A. She never made it there, though. She would get so close to ranking up, then go on a losing streak. She was angry about it, because getting to an A rank was such an amazing achievement.

She went to the weapon shop to see if there was any new and fresh stuff to buy.

* * *

It was only when Sapphire woke up the next morning that she realized she had been sleeping on her iSquid. It was still on. The night before, she had been watching videos on InkTube, and the webpage was still the "Do Not Laugh Challenge."

She realized right then that she was still in her clothes.  _Oh well_. She walked outside the apartment building to get on the train to Inkopolis. She sat down next to another inkling girl. The train doors closed, and the train started to move down the track.

About ten minutes before the train arrived in Inkopolis, Sapphire heard a soft booming in the distance. She turned her head to see smoke outside the window.

 _That's Octo Valley!_ she thought. Whatever exploded there must have been bad. She had been to Octo Valley once, and it wasn't a great experience.

About ten minutes later, Sapphire heard the familiar rendition of the Squid Sister's song that signaled that the train had arrived in Inkopolis. She exited the train and started walking over to the tower.

"Hey, Sapphire!" said a voice. Sapphire turned around to see none other than Lil' Woomy running up to her. A smile broke onto Sapphire's face when she saw her friend.

"Hey, Lil' Woomy!" she said. "Where are you off to?" Lil' Woomy ran over, then bent down to catch her breath.

"Ranked battle," she said. "You?"

"I was gonna do a turf war," Sapphire answered, "but I guess I can work with a ranked battle. What's the mode right now?"

"Splat Zones," said Lil' Woomy. "The stages are Mahi-Mahi Resort and Hammerhead Bridge." Luckily, Sapphire had her Krack-on Splat Roller, so she was ready for battle. Lil' Woomy held her Carbon Roller Deco.

Splat Zones were Sapphire's favorite ranked mode. It was the only one she had ever been good at. When she and Lil' Woomy got on the stage, it was Hammerhead Bridge, the stage Sapphire had been on the day before. Lil' Woomy was on her team, which was dark blue, while the other team was a bright pink.

"Ready?" said the voice on the loud speaker.

"Booyah!" Sapphire yelled.

"Yeah!" Lil' Woomy shouted.

"GO!"

The match had started. Sapphire raced to the center of the stage on one of the side passages. As soon as she got to the middle, she saw Lil' Woomy. No one else had made it to the center of the stage yet. In fact, it seemed everyone else had suddenly disappeared. But then Sapphire heard gun fire from the other side of the stage.

The pink team was coming.

Sapphire and Lil' Woomy took out some of them, and Sapphire rolled around the splat zone, trying to cover it with ink. A couple of their teammates came out from behind a wall and took out a charger on the other side. An Aerospray PG came out from behind a wall on the other team and started rushing toward Sapphire. She started to run backwards, trying to get away, but a roller from the other team came from behind and splatted her.

_Dang it! And a minute hasn't gone by yet, either._

When Sapphire respawned, she squid jumped over to a Wahhabi Splattershot, who was in the middle of the stage. When she landed, Lil' Woomy had just taken out the roller and charger from the other team.

When the match had ended, Sapphire and Lil' Woomy's team had won. Sapphire watched as her tank went from C plus to B minus. She noticed that Lil' Woomy was rank A minus.

"Whoa," Sapphire said. "You're really good."

"It's mostly because I spend more time on ranked battles than turf wars," said Lil' Woomy.

As Sapphire got home, she looked at the news on her iSquid. The first topic on the page made her heart stop.

_Octarian base destroyed by unknown agents!_

_So I was right...that was Octo Valley._

She turned off her phone, and put on some other clothes. She was going to Octo Valley to see what was going on.


	11. Chapter 11

Making the decision to get outside of her apartment was hard enough, but once outside the door, Sapphire realized that she needed to reconsider. If she was going to Octo Valley, she was going to need  _really_ fresh clothes with lots of defense. For that, she would need more super sea snails for Spyke. To do that, it would have to be Saturday. Splatfest.

 _Nevermind._ It would have to be when the results were up. She couldn't go out to Octo Valley the way she was now. It was too risky. She would have to try something else.

Sapphire had stood outside her apartment door with a weird, deep-in-thought face for too long. Some people were starting to stare. She blushed a little, and headed back into her apartment.

For some reason, her train of thought always seemed to roll back to Lil' Woomy.

_Think, Sapphire, how are you going to get into Octo Valley? If Lil' Woomy has some super sea snails and is totally okay with me using them, I might have a chance. But where would I find her on a Thursday? Thursdays, especially before a Splatfest, are the days when the plaza is filled to the brim with almost every inkling in town. Not to mention the jelly fish and other creatures. I'll never be able to find her._

A part of her wished she hadn't told Lil' Woomy not to come over.  _I could finally have a friend who's willing to go through with this kind of stuff. I was stupid..._

_Are Lil' Woomy and I friends now? I...think so. I guess competing in multiple battles together helped. I hope the next time I see her, I can actually ask her to come over. Otherwise, I'll be at a loss._

_But then again, what do I do now? I can't go to Octo Valley the way I am, no doubt about that, but I can't just go to the plaza looking for help, either. There's just too many inklings._

She wasn't sure how she was going to go through with it, so she took out her phone, opened her contacts, and pressed "Mom." She always texted her if things got tough, rather than her dad, because her phone would have been buzzing every five seconds if she did. Her mom's answer would be quick and simple, and it always helped.

" _Hey, mom, wanna go to Octo Valley to see what's going on, don't have the proper armor. Any advice?_ "

" _Try getting in touch with one of your friends!_ "

_Well, that didn't help._

_If I somehow manage to find any of them, I doubt that they would want to help me at all, considering the situation. They always tell me not to get involved in this kind of stuff._

_But I ALWAYS want to get involved with this stuff!_

_I guess I'm just gonna have to wait for answers._

* * *

Lil' Woomy walked around the plaza, searching for something to do. There wasn't much.

After all, her friends were gone.

_I wanna hang out with Sapphire, but she doesn't want me to. Did she not want to be my friend?_

Lil' Woomy didn't blame her, she didn't think she was the most fun to be around. She walked to the alley where Spyke was, but he wasn't there, so she was alone.

"Oh, why is life so difficult?" she said softly. She thought about joining someone to squad with, when a group of three squids walked up.

"Oh, are you guys trying to find someone to quad squad with?" she asked eagerly. "Because if you are, I'm free to join!" The three laughed in unison.

"No, we don't want to play your silly games!" the smallest inkling said.

"We wanna take your stuff, all of it," the biggest inkling finished off.

Lil' Woomy flinched.  _These squids want to take my gear and money!_ She hugged her Carbon Roller Deco closer to her chest. The small inkling slapped her.

"Ow!" she shouted, now angry. "What was that for?!"

"If you don't hand it over, we won't go easy on you anymore," the middle inkling said, adjusting his glasses.

"Help me!" Lil' Woomy shouted. "Are any inklings there?!" The small inkling put his hand over her mouth. The big inkling lunged for her pocket, taking her iSquid. Lil' Woomy tried to yell, but only succeeded in muttering muffled threats. They kept taking her stuff until she had nothing.

"Loser!" the biggest one shouted, and they all walked off with her stuff.

Her eyes watered, tears were coming. She ran after them, tears freely streaming down her face.

"Give it back, give me my stuff!" she shouted. The middle inkling ran back, and started kicking and punching. Lil' Woomy cried harder. After the inkling had successfully bruised her everywhere, he ran off. Lil' Woomy curled up into a ball, crying and sniffling.

She scooted over to a vending machine, looking at herself. There were black and blue marks everywhere, and her face was red from being slapped. She started to bawl. She hid her face in her hands, not wanting anyone to see her.

An inkling walked down the alley.

"No, stay away!" Lil' Woomy cried. "I have nothing left to give you! Take my hat if you want it!"

"I'm not going to hurt you," a kind voice said. "Why are you on the ground?" Lil' Woomy didn't answer, she just kept crying and sniffling. The inkling knelt down on the ground and straightened Lil' Woomy's body out. The inkling gasped, a look of horror on her face.

"What...what happened?" she asked.

"They...they took everything," Lil' Woomy whimpered. The female only stared at her, clearly unhappy with the condition the girl was in.

"Come to my house, I'll fix you all up," she said. Lil' Woomy nodded, happy that she had someone who she could trust.  _I mean, there's Sapphire, but I don't know if she even likes me anymore..._

The inkling girl picked her up and walked out of the alley, carrying a crying Lil' Woomy in her arms.

* * *

Sapphire felt stupid. She was walking to the train to get to Inkopolis. She had her Aerospray in her hand, just in case. She had put back on her regular clothes, having finally decided that the combination had the right stats.

She had to try and find Lil' Woomy. She would never be satisfied if she didn't. No matter how much she denied it, getting in touch with her was the best option.

Minutes later, she hopped off the train, right in the middle of Inkopolis Plaza. Just as she suspected, it was filled with tons of inklings. The shops had special offers, and everyone got double prizes for every battle they won. Plus, the Splatfest was coming up, and everyone was training themselves for it. Everyone wanted to get a big prize.

Sapphire did, too, so she could get more super sea snails for Spyke. It didn't seem like he was in his usual place in the alley.

_Maybe he's on break._

Just as she was heading back out, she heard a voice.

"Hey, kid, what are you doing here?" Sapphire whipped around and saw three inklings standing in front of her, mean looks on their faces.

"What do you want?" Sapphire asked, letting a hint of sarcasm into her tone. The biggest one, possibly the leader, took a step towards her. The other two seemed to be grinning ear to ear, and  _not_ in a good way. Sapphire stood up taller, trying to make herself look threatening.

"We wanna take your stuff!" said the smallest one. "All of it!" The middle one nodded his agreement. Sapphire shuddered a bit, but she stood her ground. She pointed her Aerospray at them.

"If you think I'm going down without a fight, you better think again," she growled. The leader scoffed and took another step forward. The other two seemed to chuckle.

"Do you really think you're gonna win a battle against us?" said the leader. "You're outnumbered three against one. Hope you have some armor other than headphones and a vest-" Sapphire had taken a couple steps forward as he spoke, and she leaned forward and punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground. The smaller one gasped in horror, the middle one looking appalled. The leader got up, looking nervous.

"Retreat!" said the smallest one. They ran as fast as they could away from the alley.

"And don't come back!" Sapphire yelled, a smirk on her face. She couldn't help but stick her tongue out at them.

She remembered right then that she was still looking for Lil' Woomy. She put her Aerospray on the hook of her jacket, just above the waist, and walked out of the alley.

She felt proud of herself.

 

 

 


	12. Chapter 12

Lil' Woomy ran. Ran away, the inkling girl chasing after her.

"Come back!" the girl shouted. "I need to take care of you!" Lil' Woomy glanced over her shoulder, seeing the girl far behind her. She started crying. She didn't know that inkling, she didn't  _want_ to know her. She couldn't trust her.

_Sapphire, please help..._

Her legs were aching, but it didn't matter. She had to get back to the plaza, find Sapphire and tell her what happened.

The inkling was gaining on her. "I just want to help!" she shouted. Lil' Woomy ran, faster then she ever had in her life. She shook her head. She couldn't trust the girl. Something seemed off about her. She only trusted Sapphire right now.

She ran and ran until she could run no more. The inkling girl was nowhere in sight. Maybe she had given up. Lil' Woomy collapsed onto the ground, panting and sweating.

She realized that she was at a train stop.

_I can get on the train, get back to the Plaza! Maybe Sapphire's there!_

She decided to wait for the train, having nothing better to do.

After what seemed like hours of waiting, the train arrived. Lil' Woomy hopped on, ready to go. A couple inklings stared at her, looking at her bruises, either nervous or sympathetic, Lil' Woomy couldn't tell. If she ever saw her attackers again, she would give them a real beating.

She sat down in an empty spot, feeling lucky to have found a seat with such ease.

The train arrived in the Plaza not much later, but it was late at night.

"I'll never find Sapphire, she's probably sleeping," Lil' Woomy said to herself. The Plaza was still jam-packed with inklings, getting ready for the Splatfest.

As she looked around, she realized something.  _Those three inklings still have my Carbon Roller Deco!_ She sniffled, trying not to cry again. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind, forcing herself to look for Sapphire instead.

As she was about to give up all hope, she saw her. She saw Sapphire, sitting on the fence. Lil' Woomy ran over to her, crying tears of joy. Sapphire saw her, and hopped off the fence. Lil' Woomy pulled her into a tight embrace, not wanting to let go.

They stood there for a while, not knowing what to say. Sapphire glanced at Lil' Woomy's bruises, but the latter didn't care. She wasn't alone anymore. Lil' Woomy sat on the ground, and managed to fall asleep, Sapphire by her side.

_I want it to be like this. Sapphire and I, just hanging out, and helping each other through thick and thin._

Sapphire didn't know if Lil' Woomy was asleep or half asleep, she seemed to be walking just fine, all it took was a little nudge in the right direction, and they were on their way.

When they got to the train, Sapphire realized she didn't know where Lil' Woomy lived, so she decided to take her friend back to her own apartment. Luckily, Sapphire had an extra bedroom, where her friend could sleep.

When they got to the apartment, Sapphire brought Lil' Woomy to the guest bedroom and made her a bed to sleep on, but not before putting some ointment on her friend's wounds. After Lil' Woomy was safely in bed, Sapphire made dinner for herself. She didn't make much, just some cereal with chocolate milk on the side.

Sapphire realized suddenly that Lil' Woomy had lost her Carbon Roller Deco. She looked at the time. Eight o'clock. She still had two hours until Ammo Knights closed. She looked at how much money she had.

_Yeah, that looks like enough._

She ran to the train station.

* * *

The next morning, Sapphire made Miso Soup for breakfast. Lil' Woomy was still asleep.  _I'll ask Lil' Woomy what she wants to drink when she wakes up._

She didn't even have time to get dressed before Lil' Woomy came into the kitchen, looking a bit worried.

"Is...is this your apartment?" she asked. Sapphire nodded. "Are you sure it's okay that I"m here?" Sapphire nodded again.

"You fell asleep before I asked you where you lived," she said. "I thought the only reasonable option was to bring you here. I couldn't just leave you in the plaza all by yourself. Do you want anything to drink?"

Lil' Woomy thought for a second, before saying, "Do you have any yea?" Sapphire smiled, and walked over to the cupboard to get some green tea. Lil' Woomy's face lit up, ad she sat down at the wooden table positioned in the middle of the kitchen. Sapphire poured her some tea and sat down.

"How did you get my roller back?" Lil' Woomy asked. Sapphire looked at her blankly for a few seconds.

"I didn't," she said. "I bought you a new one."

"You know, you didn't have to do that for me..."

"Of course I did," Sapphire replied. "I couldn't just leave you to go and find it. It would have taken you forever." Lil' Woomy smiled.

"Thank you, Sapphire," she said.

"It was the least I could do," said Sapphire. "I'm sorry I didn't let you come the first time you asked."

"It's okay," said Lil' Woomy. "I don't mind." She tasted the soup, and a broad smile appeared on her face. "Did  _you_ make this? It's amazing!"

Sapphire blushed. "Yeah," she said. "My mom taught me how to cook before I moved here."

"Hope you don't mind me asking," said Lil' Woomy, "but why  _did_ you move?"

"Well," Sapphire began, "I moved here because I was enrolled into a high school nearby. I had saved up enough money to buy my own apartment, so my parents didn't have to go through all the trouble of moving themselves."

They ate their breakfast, and then Lil' Woomy got up to leave.

"I've gotta go," she said, "but I hope we can hang out again sometime." Right as she was walking out the door, Sapphire realized she needed to do something.

"Lil' Woomy," she said, "before you go, I need to ask you something." Lil' Woomy stopped in her tracks.

"What do you need?" she asked. Sapphire shuffled in her seat."

"Can you...will you...do you mind..." Sapphire kept trying to say something, clearly nervous.

"Sapphire, it's okay," said Lil' Woomy. "I mean, we're friends, aren't we?" Sapphire nodded. "Okay, then you know that you can talk to me. I won't betray you, I promise.

"Okay," said Sapphire. "Thanks, Lil' Woomy. Can you...help me in Octo Valley."

Lil' Woomy smiled inwardly. She had always wanted to help someone, but she had never said anything.

"Yes, Sapphire, I'll help you!" Lil' Woomy pulled Sapphire into a hug, and Sapphire blushed. "I've always wanted to help, I just felt like I never had the chance to!"

"How come it seems like there's so much I don't know about you?" Sapphire asked.

"Well, probably because we haven't really been friends too long," Lil' Woomy stated shyly."

"Oh, yeah, how long has it been?" Sapphire asked. "Three days?" Lil' Woomy laughed. It  _had_ been that long, but the two of them had already put a lot of trust in each other.

"I really want to take down those annoying octolings," Lil' Woomy said, her anger sparking suddenly. Sapphire looked at her nervously.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," Lil' Woomy sighed, "I just have a...strong disliking towards the octolings."

"You don't seem okay," Sapphire replied. "Is something wrong? Is it...something I did?" Lil' Woomy shook her head, the fire inside her practically going away completely.

"It's just..." She sighed. "Sit down, this could take a while." She beckoned for Sapphire to sit down and get comfortable. "It was about eight years ago. I was at a birthday party for one of my friends. A sleepover party. My parents had dropped me off, that's what they had to do." Her eyes were starting to get watery. "My parents told me they were going on a mission. They were going to get revenge on the octolings. My parents were Elite spies. At least, that's what they told me. I don't know if they worked for anyone, or if they were on their own.

"Anyway, they dropped me off. It all seemed normal." Lil' Woomy stopped. This was the worst part. "I woke up, my friends surrounding me, their eyes wet and red." She stopped again, letting a single warm tear roll down her cheek. "They all told me that my parents had been killed, they weren't coming back. I cried, my friends hugging me."

She was letting her tears come freely. Sapphire sat next to her now, patting her on the back, trying to comfort her friend. "Then, I did the unthinkable. I ran, ran as far as I could," Lil' Woomy continued. "I ran from everything I knew. I left behind my brother, my friends, and I haven't returned since." She leaned her head onto Sapphire's shoulder. "It's not fair."

Lil' Woomy cried for a bit, Sapphire comforting her, until she wiped away her tears, a signal that she was done.

"So, you still wanna help me?" Sapphire asked. Lil' Woomy nodded, her eyes stinging from all the crying. "We should leave soon, then."

"Okay, I'll go get ready," said Lil' Woomy, walking into the guest room. It was destiny, Sapphire and Lil' Woomy, taking revenge on all the nasty octolings.


	13. Chapter 13

"If I remember correctly," said Sapphire, there should be a grate right down...oh, here it is!" The grate smelt of burnt metal. Smoke was rising up from it, and a small amount of debris was surrounding it.

"Have you been here before?" Lil' Woomy asked.

"Back when I was level one," Sapphire answered. "I accidentally squided through the grate. I had been..." She paused for a moment, then sighed. "Squid flopping. Come on." Sapphire and Lil' Woomy dived into the grate. Everything was dark as they fell through.

After a few seconds, they were on top of another manhole, thought Sapphire knew they weren't in Inkopolis anymore.

"Is this Octo Valley?" she asked. "Looks a bit different than I remember. I mean, it was a year ago." Lil' Woomy got up, and Sapphire did the same. They looked around. Octo Valley didn't look particularly different, but light smoke seemed to be coming out of one of the kettles. Sapphire walked over to it, nodded to Lil' Woomy, then jumped in.

Once they were inside, Lil' Woomy gasped. Sapphire stared in awe. The dome looked like a large arena, covered in purple ink, and one of the walls looked like it had exploded.

This had been an octarian base. This was the one that was on the news, this was the one Sapphire had been trying to find. The dome was deserted, no octarians to be seen, but Sapphire spotted something.

"Look!" she shouted. "Footprints!" Lil' Woomy walked over to where she was crouching. Sapphire was right; several footprints were scattered in different areas, and most were heading away from the open wall. They all had the same tread marks on them.

"I think I've heard of this," Lil' Woomy said, breaking the silence. "Most of the time, agent groups like this will wear similar gear for protection. Either that, or somebody might have walked in circles multiple times...I'm gonna go with similar gear." She stood up, then looked at Sapphire. "So...what  _were_ we gonna do here, anyway?"

Sapphire stood stock still, mind blank. "I was trying to figure out what was going on," she said, "but I didn't expect it to be this...obvious. I thought we'd run into someone or...or  _something_."

"I thought we were definitely going to fight some octolings," said Lil' Woomy. Sapphire looked at her, confused. "You know, octolings. The octarians that walk on two legs and are kind of like us."

"Oh," said Sapphire. "I...I don't know what we should do. I guess I was expecting... _more_." She shrugged a bit. "Hey, if you wanna go back now, we can. I don't think there's anything else we can do right now. Maybe if I had let you come over when you asked me the first time, there would be more for us to do."

"Don't say that," said Lil' Woomy. "If you had let me come over the first time, maybe there would be more octarians waiting to kill us. It's not all bad."

"Yeah," said Sapphire, "I guess you're right. I still can't shake the feeling that we're supposed to do something-"

"What are you two inklings doing in here?" said a voice. Sapphire and Lil' Woomy jumped and looked in the direction the voice had come from. It was an old man, dressed in some rags and a sailor's cap.

"Um, sorry," said Sapphire. "Just...trying to find some answers. I saw the smoke on the train yesterday, and..." Her voice trailed off.

"If I had known there weren't octarians in this one, I would have gone and looked myself," the man muttered. "Why didn't any of the agents tell me about this? Are they trying to keep secrets? Maybe I'll ask 1 and 2 what's going on..." He turned to look at the two girls. "You don't mind me asking you two a favor?"

"Sure," said Lil' Woomy, "what do you need help with?"

"Well, I kind of need this place cleaned up, if you can't tell," said the man. "Need to find a things. Think you're up to it?"

"Of course," said Sapphire. "If I may ask, what's your name?"

"Cuttlefish," said the man, "Captain Cuttlefish."

* * *

Meilie was skating in circles around the area, on her roller skates. She had found some earlier in Captain Cuttlefish's shed. He said they used to belong to one of his granddaughters. It was pretty easy to tell, too, because when she found them, they were an obnoxious shade of pink.

So she opted out, buying a pair of those cool types of skates, that were pretty much just wheels you attached to your normal shoes.

_Radical._

She was supposed to be watching the area while the others were out finding the Zapfish. But watching the area was actually pretty boring, when you got down to it. It was the one thing Meilie hated about being an agent.

That is, until she spotted something. Or, more accurately, someone.

Or, even more accurate than that, two someone's.

Or, the most accurate, two civilians.

_Today just got a whole lot better._

She skated up to them, planting her feet in the ground and looking them over. The two girls looked at each other nervously.

After a couple minutes of just staring at each other, Meilie got up in their faces and yelled, "Oi, civilians!" Sapphire jumped about a foot in the air.

"Y-yes?" she said.

"Whatcha doing here? Huh?" Meilie asked, trying her best to be intimidating, but the other two girls were so much taller than her, and probably older as well.

"Answer me!"

"Captain Cuttlefish asked us to help him clean up the area-" Lil' Woomy started.

"Really? Can you prove that to me?" Meilie interrupted.

"You could ask him," Sapphire suggested.

"And leave you two here alone?" Meilie chuckled. "Nah. You could be octarian spies, for all I know." Meilie didn't actually think they were octarian spies, or dangerous, for that matter, but she could tell she was beginning to get them frustrated. She couldn't help but grin cockily as she waited for their answer.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed," Sapphire muttered, "we have never been spies in our life.  _We_ just ended up in the right place at the wrong time!" She had started to charge forward a bit. "We were trying to see what happened and-" Sensing Sapphire was about to break into a run, Lil' Woomy held her back, and Sapphire struggled to get free of her grasp.

When Sapphire ran out of energy, Lil' Woomy said, "Sorry about her. I think she's got a short temper."

"You  _think_?" said Meilie. "What the heck is that supposed to mean."

"We met, like, three days ago," Sapphire moaned. "Give us a break!" Meilie lowered her gun a little, but it was still pointed at the girls.

"So, why  _are_ you here?" she asked. Lil' Woomy let go of Sapphire, who fidgeted a little, looking down at her feet.

"Well, I saw an explosion when I was on the train yesterday," she said, "and I already knew Lil' Woomy, so I decided to ask her to help me find out what it was, so we came down here, didn't know what to do, Captain Cuttle fish asked us to help, and now you're here. Happy now?" Meilie looked suspicious, but she lowered her gun and hooked it on her belt.

"Sorry for getting mad at you," said Sapphire.

"So, what are your names?" Meilie asked.

"I'm Sapphire," said Sapphire. "This is Lil' Woomy."

"Hello!" said Lil' Woomy.

"Cool," said Meilie. "I'm Meilie Dawnset. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, Meilie," said Lil' Woomy, sticking out her hand for a shake. Meilie took it, feeling a bit awkward.

"Well, what do we do now?" Lil' Woomy asked Sapphire. Sapphire only shrugged. "Well, that's great. I don't know what to say. This is so boring!" She threw her arms up into the air.

"You okay, Lil' Woomy?" Sapphire asked. Lil' Woomy crossed her arms over her chest, then let them fall down again.

"This...isn't what I thought it would be," she said.

"I know, I know, it's different than we thought," said Sapphire, "but we just...have to deal with it. Captain Cuttlefish asked us to do something, anyways."

"You two seem weird," said Meilie awkwardly. "What's going on?"

"Well, long story short, we were expecting something different," Sapphire answered. Lil' Woomy sat down on the ground, thinking things over. She wanted to leave, but they had been asked to clean things up.

"What does he mean by clean things up?" Lil' Woomy asked. "It doesn't make any sense!" She stood up.

"Lil' Woomy?" Sapphire started, putting a hand on Lil' Woomy's shoulder. The latter shoved it away angrily. Lil' Woomy was shaking in anger. Sapphire had backed away, a spark of fear in her eyes.

Lil' Woomy felt as though something was different about herself. She felt...controlled, as though her body wasn't her own. She had no fear, as if fear had been plucked like a weed from her body. She couldn't even trust herself. It felt like she was two different people.

Her legs collapsed suddenly under her, and she fell to the ground, the force taking over.  _Now_ she was scared, really scared. She tried to tell Sapphire to run, but before she could, she was in darkness.

 _What is this?_ she thought.

"Hello?" she said, not really expecting an answer.

The weird thing was, she got one.

"Hello."

Lil' Woomy whipped around, and came face to face with an octoling, gear and all.

"Go away!" Lil' Woomy screeched.

"Okay," said the octoling, stepping back a little.

_Is she controlling me?"_

"Yes."

"Wait, you can hear my thoughts?" Lil' Woomy asked.

"Yeah," said the octoling, seemingly unphased. "We  _are_ in your brain, after all."

"So you're the one who took over me?" The octoling nodded. "Why?"

"You know why."

 _The Zapfish_ , Lil' Woomy thought.

"But...why me?" she said. "I have nothing to offer you. I'm not even with the agents!" The octoling chuckled.

"There's always an advantage, no matter who I control," she said. "You're perfect for the job."


	14. Chapter 14

Sapphire couldn't believe what she was seeing. Lil' Woomy was trying to  _fight her._ She had her Carbon Roller Deco pointed at Sapphire and everything. Meilie looked terrified.

"What's wrong with her?!" she asked. Sapphire looked at Meilie, then Lil' Woomy, then at the checkpoint back to Octo Valley. She grabbed Meilie's hand.

"I have absolutely  _no idea_ , but we've gotta run!" Sapphire shouted, dragging Meilie along to the checkpoint.

"What are you  _doing_?!" Meilie shouted. "Aren't you gonna fight her?!"

"Are you  _crazy_?! Sapphire yelled, still running. "I'm not fighting my best friend!" Meilie picked up the pace, and they both ran to the checkpoint-

-as it turned off.

"Hey, you, snap out of it!" Meilie shouted at Lil' Woomy. Sapphire was panicking, Lil' Woomy didn't answer. Several octarians and octolings surrounded them.

" _Aaaaand..._ _that's_ what an octoling likes like," said Sapphire. "Okay, I'm done." She grabbed her Aerospray and rushed over to the nearest octoling. She splatted it, and moved on to the next. Meilie hesitated before following.

"Whatever you do, don't hurt Lil' Woomy!" Sapphire shouted. Meilie nodded.

The sky-like screens seemed to glisten as the octarian soldiers charged at the girls, their tentacle-like hair gleaming in the light. Sapphire sneaked around some of the octarians and took out an octo-striker. Blue ink flew everywhere and took out a few other octarians.

As Sapphire got up, an elite octoling kicked her aside. Sapphire tumbled to the ground, purple ink on her face. The elite pointed her octo-shot at the girl. Sapphire kicked her in the stomach, pinned her down, and spatted her. Ink flew across the battlefield.

Sapphire turned to look at Meilie, who had just splatted three octarians. Meilie turned to Sapphire and nodded towards something. Sapphire looked in the indicated direction and saw more octarian forces materializing. Sapphire frowned.

"We can't keep fighting like this!" she yelled. "We need to stop them from coming!"

In her peripheral vision, she saw Lil' Woomy charging towards her. In shock, Sapphire twisted around, putting her foot out instinctively, and delivered a kick harder than she ever had before. Lil' Woomy skid across the pavement, hand clutched weakly over her stomach.

Unconscious.

Sapphire ran over to her. "Lil' Woomy!" she whimpered. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it! I'm s-sorry!" Tears started to fill her eyes and she let out a small sob. "Please don't die! I don't want you to die! Don't die, please!"

"I'm not dying, you idiot!" Lil' Woomy shouted. "I mean...uh...Sapphire." Sapphire smiled, feeling relieved, as Lil' Woomy started to get up. "Ow...my stomach...what happened?"

"I kind of...kicked you in the stomach," Sapphire replied. "Really hard." She helped Lil' Woomy to her feet.

"Guys, I appreciate the little...get-together moment," said Meilie, "but may I remind you that we're kind of being surrounded right now?" Sapphire smiled.

"Let's do this."

Lil' Woomy looked at Sapphire. It was time. She was going to get her revenge on the octarian army. They locked eyes for a short moment, before the octarians started to shoot.

"Let's go kick some octarian butt!" Lil' Woomy cried. She ran to her right, where a hoard of octolings were waiting for me. There didn't seem to be too many, so Lil' Woomy decided to take care of them herself. She cried out in anger as she ran towards them, swinging her Carbon Roller Deco in the air like a battle ax. Ink flew everywhere, splatting four octolings.

"Wow!" Sapphire shouted. "That was impressive!" Lil' Woomy looked over at her, noticing that her friend was running headfirst into a barrage of octo-snipers. One was aiming right at her.

"Sapphire, to your right!" Lil' Woomy yelled. Sapphire ran ahead, and just in the nick of time, too, as the octo-sniper pulled the trigger, ink flying just a little past Sapphire's face.

Lil' Woomy felt something cold hit her own.

"No, you won't get me!" Lil' Woomy shouted, kicking an octoling in the stomach. The octoling fell to the ground, and Lil' Woomy put a foot on top of her, hoping to at least startle the other octolings.

"If you stop shooting, the rest of you won't end up like her," Lil' Woomy said, pushing her foot harder on the octoling below her.

"You don't scare me," said a voice. Octolings parted, revealing an elite, who's seaweed hung down from her hair rather than shooting up. Lil' Woomy thought she recognized the voice.

"You're the octoling who was controlling me!" she shouted, getting into a battle stance. The octoling snickered.

"Girls, I have a bone to pick with this one," she sneered. "Leave her to me."

"Hey, Lil' Woomy, need any help over there?" Sapphire asked.

"No, this is personal business," Lil' Woomy responded.

"Okay! You've got this!" Sapphire cheered.

The octoling stepped forward.

"Lil' Woomy," she said. "Why does that name sound familiar? Oh, wait," she cackled, "I know why." She grinned smugly. "It really stinks that your parents aren't here. They told me you would get back at me, not that I care."

"How do you know about my parents?" Lil' Woomy hissed.

"Simple," the octoling answered. "I'm the one who killed them."

"It can't be!" Lil' Woomy cried, charging towards her. The octoling dodged easily.

"Your parents were so easy to kill," she said. "They were helpless lovebirds!"

"Don't you  _dare_ call my parents helpless!" Lil' Woomy shouted, swinging her Carbon Roller Deco in the octoling's direction. She dodged all of Lil' Woomy's swings, then punched her in the gut. Lil' Woomy clutched her chest, then ran towards her again, a plan forming in her mind.

"You'll never splat me if you act like that!" the octoling shouted. She ran to the side, but Lil' Woomy knew what to do. She kept chasing the octoling until she found an opening, then fired a seeker. It hit the octoling dead on, and she collapsed to the ground.

"How did you figure me out?" the octoling breathed.

"Shut it," said Lil' Woomy, kicking her to the side. The octoling shrieked in pain, and Lil' Woomy aimed her weapon and splatted her.

Killing octolings seemed different. This was on a personal level. It felt good, not killing, but she had let out a lot of anger on that octoling.

"Lil' Woomy, you did it!" Sapphire exclaimed, running over to her friend.

"I really did, didn't I?" Lil' Woomy asked happily.

"I've never seen you look so angry before," Sapphire replied.

"Where's Meilie?"

"She's over there, taking care of those pesky octo-troopers."

Lil' Woomy looked in the indicated direction, where a small amount of octolings were. It seemed as though there were ten times as many octolings as there had been before.

"Hey, Sapphire?" Lil' Woomy asked. "I'm going to need your help."

"Alright, let's go!"

They charged towards the octolings, splatting a few, and regrouped with Meilie. Sapphire, Lil' Woomy, nad Meilie stood back to back, and the world seemed to run in slow motion as the octarians advanced on them. The octoling Lil' Woomy had killed moments ago was now a helpless puddle of magenta ink, but more and more octarians were still materializing.

Sapphire nodded to her friends, and they charged forward, screaming a battle cry. Sapphire stomped on a helpless octoball as she ran. She kicked down another octoling, and took out an octobomber, who had tried to shoot an ink bomb at her moments before. A twintacle octo-trooper powered towards her, but Meilie stepped in and took it out. She shouted a "Booyah" and went to help Lil' Woomy.

Sapphire placed an inkmind down on the ground, special weapon almost ready. Lil' Woomy took out an octo-copter and another octoling. Just as Sapphire's special was ready, they all heard a voice boom across the battlefield.

" _What do you think you're doing down here?!_ "

Meilie, Lil' Woomy, and Sapphire turned their heads to see a larger octarian, DJ Octavio.

"Is that...?" Meilie started.

"DJ Octavio?" Lil' Woomy finished. Sapphire looked at her, a look of confusion on her face.

"You're waisting all the ink we have left on  _what_?! Three little inklings?!" Octavio boomed. "And only  _one_ of them is an actual agent! A pitiful one, at that! You could have taken them out with twenty of us! But you had to send the entire fleet?!" He super-jumped down to the group, landing just a few inches away.

He smelled like seaweed.

"Normally," he said, "I'd have taken you out myself, but we only have so much ink left."

"Can't you just...? You know," Sapphire started, "multiply it by hiding in the ink?"

"Not possible, our ink tanks aren't quite as advanced," Octavio answered. "We used to have a bigger tank that these idiots would multiply themselves, but most of it was stored in the labyrinth. And since your pesky little agents made it self-destruct..." He finished his mini-rant, glowering at the three girls menacingly.

"But don't think I don't recognize you all," he said. "You," he pointed to Meilie, "you're one of them agents. You," he pointed at Lil' Woomy, "you're just the  _daughter_ of two of 'em agents. And you," he pointed at Sapphire, "you're just some idiot who walked in one day and decided to fight, aren'tcha?!" Sapphire frowned. "Leave 'em alone, you morons, we don't have the ink or time to deal with these fools." As soon as Octavio was out of earshot, Sapphire looked over at Meilie.

"You're an agent?" she asked excitedly.

"You  _just_ figured that out?" Meilie replied with annoyance. "It's pretty obvious." She tossed her gun into the air and caught it with her other hand. "Hey, Octavio!" She yelled this time. "Remember that one time we blew up your building?! That was fun!" She glided a little bit closer to Octavio. He looked like he was starting to get angry.

"What's the matter? Are you  _scaaared_?" Meilie taunted.

"Meilie, don't!" Sapphire said through gritted teeth. Meilie ignored them. She stepped closer to Octavio.

"Y'know, it's a wonder the octarians have survived this long, considering your terrible leadership skills," Meilie finished.

That was it. Octavio gave her an angry look and nodded to a group of lingering elite octolings.

"You four take care of these pests," he said, before motioning for the other octarians to follow him. With that, he and all the other octarians left, save the elites.

Meilie grinned at them. "You wanna fight?" she challenged.

"We do," one of them said, "but don't count on your victory." Her seaweed was longer than the others. Meilie assumed she was the leader. She heard Lil' Woomy and Sapphire begin to walk closer, presumably to try and help.

"Ay, civilians, I know you wanna help and all that, but you should leave this to me," she said. "Because I'm a professional." And with that, she began to skate towards them, gun at the ready. One of the octolings began to shoot her, which she easily evaded.

Meilie began to shoot as well, and the octolings jumped out of the way. She skidded to a halt once she got close to one of them. She shot towards the octoling, but she jumped out of the way and shot back. Meilie jumped out of the way as well, but she took stock still when she felt something hit the back of her head.

With a sudden rush of pain and dizziness, the world around her started to fade to black.


	15. Chapter 15

" _Meilie!_ " Sapphire shouted. She could only stare in horror as Meilie, who had just been shot in the head with ink, collapsed to the ground. Sapphire rushed to her aid. Meilie seemed to breathing just fine, no real harm had been done, but Sapphire was still infuriated as she looked at the octolings, fury etched on her face.

"I guess  _she's_ the only one who's gonna cause us any  _real_ problems," said the leader elite. "Take 'em both out." Sapphire heard a shot of ink, and turned around to see that Lil' Woomy had fallen to the ground.

As the octolings shot at Sapphire, she twisted and turned, dodging each splotch of ink, trying to take out the octolings.

"You're pretty strong," said the leader elite. "You should be an agent." Sapphire blushed a little, not realizing she was being caught off guard.

"Really?" she asked. She felt a sharp pain in the back of her head.

_Oh no._

"Yeah," said the elite. "You're going to be terrible."

Everything around her started to fade to  _b_ l _a_ ck _..._

_HOW COULD YOU BE SO-_

_Okay, okay, stop panicking, you're fine. You only passed out. Well, now that I think about it, that doesn't seem too fine..._

_"Are you sure, Honey?"_

_What? Whose voice-_

_"If she wants to go, I think she should be given the chance."_

_Mom? Dad?_

_I'm...back in the dining room. This is a year ago..._

_Mom's wearing her blue dress and apron. Dad's wearing his purple sweater..._

_Do you actually know anyone there besides Saria Seafoam?" says mom._

_"Well, there's the captain," says dad. "He's pretty good at helping people."_

_"Honey, she can hear-"_

_"Oh, right."_

_Mom's walking towards me._

_"Sweetie, do you really want to go there?"_

_"Yeah!"_

_Hey, that's...my voice..._

_"Well, alright. We'll help you move in, okay?" mom asks._

_"Okay!"_

_Everything's black now..._

_Wait, is this Inkopolis Plaza? It sure is rainy..._

_"Hey, you okay?"_

_That voice..._

_Wait, is someone crying?_

_Am..._

_Am I crying?_

_Wait, that's Diamond...!_

_"No...I'm not..."_

_A few sniffles._

_"Hey, it's okay. What happened?" says Diamond._

_"Some...m-mean kids beat me up...I was just trying to help..."_

_"It's okay. Wanna come over to my place? My friends are there. I have some bandages and gauze."_

_"O-Okay."_

_I wish I could see him agai-_

A _b_ _lindi_ _n_ g flas _h_ o _f lig_ ht.

* * *

"Agh, for the love of cod, I can't leave these scrubs for one minute," Tramp muttered. "Just  _one_ single minute would be  _great_!"

Meilie was supposed to be looking over the area while Tramp and the other agents looked for the Zapfish.  _Honestly, I had a bad feeling leaving Meilie to look after the place, and now I'm back from collecting Zapfish, and I see this!_

Tramp could've just kept watching from her birds-eye view, but Meilie was out cold, and two more inklings, as well.

_Ah, screw it!_

She stood up from her sitting position and threw her Krak-on Roller over her shoulder.

"As much as I hate heights," she mused, "gotta love the adrenaline!" With that, she closed her eyes and slowly fell forward. As she rapidly fell towards the ground, she was able to turn so her back was facing the ground.

She felt the familiar tingle in her tentacles, which flared up in their usual blue color.

_I sometimes wonder how I, an Elite Inkling, came to help others...cause that really ain't my thing...oh well!_

She triggered her Krak-on form as she hit the ground. She dived towards the octolings.

" _Incoming kraken!_ "

She could only hear the scream of the four octolings, only for one of them to be drowned out once Tramp landed. She felt something under her, and assumed it was one octolings once whatever it was exploded into ink.

_Ah, the sweet feeling you get when you get when you splat a poor, innocent soul. No, wait, they're not innocent...eh._

Tramp glared at the other three. "Alright, ladies, who's next?" she asked. " _Who wants to feel the thunder?!_ " She started to chase them off.

" _She wasn't supposed to be here!_ " cried an underling octoling. The elite leader pushed her way ahead of them.

 __" _I don't care anymore, just save me!_ "

* * *

Lil' Woomy woke up on the ground. She felt strange, unable to remember what had happened. She felt a sharp pain on the back of her head, and she rubbed it with her hand. When she pulled her hand in front of her face, a splotch of magenta ink covered her calm.

She screamed, then stared at the ink.

She screamed again, more urgent this time, but stopped when she saw a female inkling out of the corner of her eye.

"Oh, you're awake," said Tramp, putting her hand out to help Lil' Woomy. Lil' Woomy took it and stood up. She looked at the ground, noticing four small puddles of magenta ink.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Oh, I just splatted some octarians, no big deal," Tramp answered. Lil' Woomy looked around. She was still in Octo Valley. Sapphire and Meilie were unconscious on the ground, both with magenta ink on their heads.

 _They must've been shot by those octolings as well,_ Lil' Woomy thought. It really scared her, knowing that some of the octolings were so hard to get rid of.

"Is Sapphire going to be okay?" Lil' Woomy asked, pointing to Sapphire.

"Oh, her?" said Tramp. "She'll be fine, don't worry." Lil' Woomy sighed in relief. Sapphire was going to be okay.

"So, what's your name?"

"I'm Tramp."

"Nice to meet you Tramp, my name is Lil' Woomy."

"Nice to meet you."

Lil' Woomy heard something. She looked to her left, where Sapphire was groaning in pain.

"Sapphire!" Lil' Woomy exclaimed, running over to her. "You're okay!"

"Ugh, what...what happened?" Sapphire asked, rubbing her head.

"You don't really need to know that now, but let me help you up." Lil' Woomy reached for Sapphire's hand. Sapphire got up, with Lil' Woomy's help, and looked over at Tramp.

"AGH! Who's that?!" Sapphire yelled.

"That's Tramp," Lil' Woomy stated simply.

"Lil' Woomy told me your name's Sapphire," said Tramp, looking at Sapphire. Sapphire looked at Lil' Woomy, then Tramp, then the four piles of magenta ink.

"Umm...I'm not even gonna ask," she said.

Meilie started moving.

"Oh, I'm so happy everyone's okay!" said Lil' Woomy, walking over to Meilie.

"Well, I should get going, I need to look for some more Zapfish," said Tramp.

"Wait, don't leave already! We just met you!" said Lil' Woomy.

"Look, I need to go, I've got some agent stuff to take care of," Tramp argued. "Meilie, you're coming with me."

"Oh, I understand," Lil' Woomy said sadly. "Goodbye."

As soon as the two of them had come, they were gone.

* * *

Tramp stared down at the Zapfish in her hands as Meilie rambled on in the background. Tramp tried slowly tuning her out, restraining herself from throwing the Zapfish at the other girl's face. She sighed.

_This is why I go solo..._

"Why'd we have to leave, anyway?" Meilie asked, glaring angrily at Tramp. "Now nobody is gonna be able to protect the Zapfish we already got, except Captain Oldguy and the civilians. It's not like they'd be much help."

Tramp huffed a little, gently petting the Zapfish's head in attempt to keep calm. "May I remind you that 'Captain Oldguy' was part of the Turf War that happened years ago?" she countered. "Ya know, a  _captain_? He'd last longer than you, that's for sure. You were only shot once and you were out like a light! You were lucky I was around at the time, or you'd be a goner,  _and_ you would've been responsible for anything that could've happened to those two inklings!"

"Oh, well, I'm  _sorry_ for trying to help," Meilie shot back angrily. "Not everyone is some super experienced inkling like you."

"That's because I actually  _try_ to get better," Tramp retorted lightly as she walked on.

"I try to get better..." Meilie muttered angrily as she follwed Tramp.

Tramp fumbled over the Zapfish, which had started wriggling in her arms, wanting to be let loose. "H-Hey, hey, bad Zapfish! Bad Zapfish!" Meilie watched as the Zapfish tried to wriggle out of Tramp's grasp. She blew one of her tentacles out of her face, turned away, and kept walking.

Tramp bit her lip, taking hold of its head with the suction cup of her tentacle, watching it try to pull itself away.

"Frisky little thing..."

Meilie reached into the bag she had strapped around her waist and pulled out a pair of earbuds.

Tramp kept the Zapfish hanging from her tentacle. "Now, what to do?" she mused. "I could keep going further from here, but the path gets harder...doubt lil' miss scrub over here can handle it past that area ahead-"

Meilie had pulled out her earbuds, and was now staring angrily at Tramp. "I'll just leave, then!" she interrupted.

Tramp sighed heavily and gave Meilie a small, annoyed glance. "Let me finish. I was going to say you wouldn't be able to handle what's ahead  _alone_. You're sticking with me, after all, but I don't want you to cause me any trouble. I've got a reputation to uphold."

"Of  _course_ ," Meilie said mockingly. "You have to uphold the reputation that only exists with a  _couple people_."

Tramp scoffed a bit, but didn't comment on it.  _There's no use arguing something like that, especially when it's false..._

Although she told herself that, the look on her face showed that it did tick her off somewhat. Meilie crossed her arms.

"I'm leaving," she said, turning away to get back to the kettle. "Have fun."

Tramp groaned in annoyance. "I actually thought you'd take on the challenge, but I guess you really are a scrub!" Meilie shot Tramp a glare, but said nothing. Tramp turned and walked on ahead. "Go ahead, for all I care! Go squidbag some poor beginner since that's all you're good at!"

Meilie didn't expect Tramp to respond in the way she did, and she could feel her eyes beginning to water. She quickly wiped them on her sleeve.

"F-fine then," she muttered.

Tramp's ears drooped a little, hearing Meilie's small, hurt voice, but tried to shake it off. The Zapfish made a small sound, catching her attention, only to see it was glaring up at her.

"Don't look at me like that!" she whispered to it. "If she really does want to go, then so be it. I don't need inklings who are too lazy to do anything. I wonder how she even made it into the agency in the first place."

 

 


	16. Chapter 16

" _Dear diary..._ "

Well, it sounded okay in her head, but now that it was on paper, Sapphire started to feel unsure about it. She shrugged it off and kept writing.

" _Yes, I still hate writing in you, but mom says I need to write down my feelings every once in a while._ "

She took a mental note never to show this to her mother.

" _How are my feelings?_ " She thought a bit on this. " _Confused, excited, and nervous all at the some time._ "

She decided quickly not to write anything about the octoling she had met.

" _I've met three different inklings this week. Lil' Woomy, Meilie, and Tramp. I'm pretty sure Meilie is the same inkling that shot that inkstrike, but only because of her ink color. I know absolutely squat about Tramp, given that she was right next to me for about ten seconds before she left with Meilie._ "

She wrote another sentence in her notebook, but crossed it out almost as soon as it appeared on the paper.

" _After that, I asked Lil' Woomy if she wanted to come home with me again for the night, but she said that it seemed weird two nights in a row, but offered to stay over tomorrow after the Splatfest. I didn't see Meilie again, but that's to be expected._ "

" _Lil' Woomy's actually a pretty great friend._ "

She smiled a bit.

" _Sincerely, Sapphire Seashot._ "

* * *

Lil' Woomy had just finished up a Splatfest match, and she was starting to get really tired. She let out a small yawn.

 _Maybe I should stop_ , she thought, rubbing her eyes. She knew absolutely nobody she was playing with. Since she had met Sapphire, she had gotten used to playing with her as an ally. But Sapphire was nowhere to be seen.

Lil' Woomy quickly realized that she had Sapphire's iSquid number, so she called her.

"Hey, Sapphire!" she said as soon as the other girl picked up.

"Oh, hey, Lil' Woomy," Sapphire responded sleepily.

"Want to join one Splatfest match with me? Then I'll come over to your house and we can sleep."

Sapphire yawned. "Uh, yeah, that sounds good!" she said, letting out yet another small yawn.

"Okay, meet you near the fence!" Lil' Woomy replied, hanging up.

The fence was now the place where they met up. Lil' Woomy didn't really know why, maybe because it was easy to spot. She sat down on the fence, waiting for Sapphire. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw her, so she jumped off the fence and onto the ground.

"Let's go!" Lil' Woomy said, running ahead of Sapphire and into the tower.

"I'm coming, Lil' Woomy, wait up!" Sapphire shouted, trying to catch up with her friend.

Lil' Woomy let out a small giggle. "I hope we're on the same team."

"We can only hope."

"Right!" Lil' Woomy nodded.  _This is going to be great!_ The two of them hopped into the elevator and were teleported to the map.

The map they got was Piranha Pit. Sapphire and Lil' Woomy were on the same team.  _I guess we just have a lot more in common than I thought._

" _GO!_ " the speaker sounded. Lil' Woomy ran around the map, flicking her Carbon Roller everywhere. Sapphire was already to the middle of the map, that was surprising. Lil' Woomy was usually the first on her team to get to the middle. It didn't matter, she reasoned, she just needed to pay attention and lay down some ink.

She started heading towards enemy territory, but was quickly stopped. A Zink Mini Splatling rounded the corner and quickly took her out.

"Shoot!" Lil' Woomy shouted, signaling multiple "booyahs" to her team as well. Sapphire must've noticed, because she ran over to the Splatling and pointed her Aerospray at them, taking them down easily. Lil' Woomy respawned quickly, and took action fast.

There were two minutes left, and she ran towards the center of the map, taking down two inklings along the way. She shot a seeker at an unsuspecting inkling, taking her out, too.

"Wow, you made quick work of their team!" Sapphire said proudly. Lil' Woomy nodded with a smile.

" _Game!_ "

"Wow, that seemed short," said Lil' Woomy.

Sapphire led Lil' Woomy back to the train station afterwards, and they went to her apartment. Lil' Woomy jumped into the guest bed, not bothering to do anything more, and fell asleep.

* * *

With an angry huff, Meilie splatted the inkling right in front of her. She kept running towards the other team's base. She wanted to get their base covered before the match ended. She go to their base, and as soon as she had started shooting her gun, the match had ended.

 _Squit,_ she thought.  _Well, maybe we still won-_

They lost.

Meilie let out a groan of frustration and exited the match. With a pulling sensation, she found herself in the Plaza. She sighed and walked over to the train station.

She bought a ticket and got onto the train heading towards her apartment. It was a long and boring ride. Everyone riding seemed to be with their friends. They were all talking, laughing, and it just generally looked like everyone was having fun.

Out of the corner of her eye, Meilie saw Sapphire and Lil' Woomy. She didn't think they noticed her, though. Either that, or they didn't recognize her. Both were fine, it would probably be best if they didn't meet again, anyway.

It had been only one day since Meilie left Octo Valley. She didn't plan on ever going back. If they didn't appreciate her, why stay?

By the way, she did not cry.

She doesn't cry.

Okay, fine, maybe a little, but so what?

Her head snapped up as she heard the bell, signaling that they had arrived at her stop. She heaved herself out of her seat and walked off the train. Instead of going straight to her apartment, however, she went to the empty stage right next to it.

Museum D'Alfonsino.

The neon blue markings on her tentacles and body began to glow, and they illuminated the area around her. It was empty, it wasn't being used for the Splatfest.

She climbed over one of the walls. She was going to train. She would prove Tramp wrong.

She grinned and began to shoot.

 


	17. Chapter 17

After a long night of work back at Inkopolis Tower during Splatfest, Tramp headed back home to Mahi-Mahi Resorts.

You may be thinking, who does this young squid work for?

Well, besides being part of the New Squidbeak Splatoon as Agent Infinity, she was also Callie and Marie's assistant with their music and songs. Basically, she was the inkling in the background making sure the two stars stayed as loved and as popular as they were.

Although, remembering how dorky they used to be, Tramp reasoned that they still hadn't changed much. She chuckled a little at that. But as they had gotten more and more popular only a few years ago, the more and more she became popular in Turf Wars and in Ranked.

But due to the most recent activity from the octarians and DJ Octavio, she had no choice.

She had to make like a tree and leaf for a while.

_Heh...hope no one splats me for that pun..._

She walked along the alley, thinking to herself about the day before, the "incident" with Meilie. Although she wasn't Tramp's only thought at the moment, she still had a bad feeling inside.

"Ha," she muttered, "this place probably softened me up to even care over someone like her."

"That's cause you were a big softie in the first place, chief."

For a moment, Tramp placed a hand over her heart and took in a deep breath. She slipped the communicator off her ears and brought it closer to her lips.

" _COD DAMMIT, STEEL, YOU NEARLY GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK!_ "

With that, she heard the "manliest" scream possible from atop the roof of one of the resort's buildings. Tramp huffed, looking up the old, broken ladder that lead up to the roof, then hopped up to start climbing. She reached the top and spotted Steel wriggling around while he covered his ears.

"I'd push you into the pool," Tramp sighed, "but I think my own voice was enough."

The roof itself was Tramp's home. Many would expect her to be rich, being high level as well as high ranked, but she usually gave her money to Steel for his high tech equipment. That little nerd made an entire base for himself as well as for her and the...others.

She didn't like to think about them, though.

Steel lived with Tramp, although she still didn't know how he followed her out of their hometown, Eeldiana, at least not without help. Maybe she underestimated him sometimes.

She leaned over him a bit, her tentacles flaring up in their bright neon color. "This is what you get for scaring me," Tramp snapped. "Now, get up, shrimpy, we need to talk." She reached her hand out to help him. He gladly took it, rubbing his ear a bit once he was on his feet.

Steel followed Tramp over to his computer, which he had connected to his Squidtop.

"The octarians, I presume?"

Tramp nodded and looked at the screen. "It is..."

He had opened a few folders on the computer. "I was able to...ah, 'borrow' some of octavio's files from him. I've been making duplicates of them so I could erase the originals. Those ones might contain viruses, but so far, nothing has popped up."

Tramp nodded slowly. "Must be a huge plan if it's taken you over a day to copy these things."

"That isn't the only thing."

With a tilt of her head, Tramp asked, "Is it going to be a problem?"

Steel didn't reply as he put the files from Octavio to the side. He pulled up seven other files.

Tramp's tentacles flared up even more as her anger rose just a bit. "Steel," she muttered darkly.

"I'm sorry, chief!" he said, his ears drooping a little. "It's the only thing we're going to have to resort to! We just don't have a choice!"

Tramp sighed heavily, a feeling of guilt and pain returning from times she couldn't remember. Feelings she had wished would never return.

_But this is serious..._

Steel confirms it. "We'll need the whole squad for this."

With that, Tramp stared at the screen of the computer.

Seven files were displayed.

Seven different people.

Five inklings. Two octarians.

Tramp sighed. "It's time for the Elite Squad to reunite."

* * *

Sapphire didn't usually have dreams at night. But when she did, they were usually happy dreams, about Splatfests and hanging out with imaginary friends. That's why that night in particular was such a weird experience.

She was in a squad battle, on a map similar to that of Piranha Pit, on the green team. Right next to her was Lil' Woomy, Meilie, and Tramp. A loud buzzer sounded, and everyone ran in different directions, leaving Sapphire all alone. She looked around for a second, then started shooting her...Splattershot? She ran all the way to the enemy's territory, whose ink was magenta.

"That's odd," Sapphire muttered. Her voice didn't sound like her own, which was to be expected. Lil' Woomy trudged up behind her and gasped. Sapphire turned around. Lil' Woomy looked terrified for a fraction of a second, then her expression turned to a look of hatred.

She started shooting. She started shooting at  _Sapphire_. Not ink, but real bullets. For some reason, she seemed to have a Hydra Splatling. One of the shots flew right over Sapphire's head. She wanted to yell at Lil' Woomy, scream that it was  _her_ , that she didn't have to shoot her, but the words didn't come out right. In fact, they were totally different words.

"You'll pay for what you did to me." Those words sounded foreign, like they didn't belong to her. Lil' Woomy looked terrified. She kept shooting, Meilie following close behind, Tramp at their side. Then, someone else turned a corner.

It was...Sapphire. Another Sapphire.

_I'm not me. I'm not meant to be me. I'm someone else._

_An octoling._

Lil' Woomy kept shooting, looking, if possible, even more terrified.

One of the bullets hit Sapphire right in the stomach. A swirl of colors passed in front of her, the previous image deteriorating. Some colors were faces. Faces of Sapphire's mother, her old friends from her old town, and some she didn't recognize. A blue inkling boy side by side with an octoling, faces smudged out with circles of paint, the picture of an inkling hiding in a garbage can, and Captain Cuttlefish from earlier that day.

Voices rang inside her head, mumbling names and screaming calls for help, and suddenly other words started to form. They were calling to her.  _Sapphire, Sapphire..._

"Sapphire, wake up!"

She jolted upright, clutching her shoulders, tears streaking down her face.

Sapphire looked up to see Lil' Woomy, looking panicked. Sapphire immediately got off the bed and hugged her, apologizing through tears.

"I'm so sorry!" she sobbed. "I didn't mean it! Is Meilie okay-"

"What happened?" Lil' Woomy asked. She put her hands on Sapphire's shoulders, pushing her back towards the bed. "You look like you've seen a ghost! Did you have a nightmare?"

Sapphire told her friend what she had seen, but reshaped the story to make it seem like she had seen the battle from the sidelines instead of from the eyes of the attacker. Lil' Woomy sat down next to her, putting her hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay," she said. "As long as we're side by side, we're safe. Besides, you know I can handle myself." Sapphire knew Lil' Woomy was right, and pulled her into a hug, dried tears falling down from her face.

"I...I really thought that...that you were...d-d-dead," she said, tears falling down her face again. "That I was dead...I don't know. I thought I had lost you." She looked down at the once neat sheets that were now stained with sweat and covered in wrinkles. "I'm...I'm so sorry." Lil' Woomy couldn't help but start crying as well.

They cried together for a while, both tired and emotional. Sapphire wiped away some tears and Lil' Woomy did as well.

"Hey, Sapphire?" Lil' Woomy said after a while. Sapphire looked over to her. "I'm gonna go lie down now, you're fine now, right?" Sapphire nodded, wiping her eyes once more. "Okay, see you in the morning." Lil' Woomy tried to hold back the yawn she knew was coming. She walked back to the guest room and fell back asleep.

As she was sleeping, she got to have a nightmare of her own. It was the same dream as usual, the sleepover and my parents. She hadn't told Sapphire yet, she didn't want her to worry every night. But that failed, as Sapphire was standing over her when she woke up, a worried look plastered on her face.

"I assume you heard me scream?" Lil' Woomy asked, wiping away beads of sweat off her forehead. Sapphire nodded, and Lil' Woomy sighed. "I guess you wanna know what  _my_ nightmare was, then."

Lil' Woomy told her about the nightmare, Sapphire silent the whole way through. When she was finished, Lil' Woomy stood up and closed the blinds, noticing that the sky was a nice bright shade of orange. She rubbed her eyes.

"Hey, Sapphire, do you know what we're doing today?"

"Maybe we could just stay at home," Sapphire suggested.

"That would be nice," Lil' Woomy sighed. "We've done something every day this week. It would be nice to relax."

A little alarm in the back of her mind went off, signaling that something was wrong.  _Very_ wrong. She felt tired, too tired all of a sudden, and she tried to think of where she'd felt the sensation before.

Suddenly, she realized.

_The octoling. She's trying to control me again._

" _NO!_ " she shouted. Sapphire looked at Lil' Woomy, clearly startled. Lil' Woomy had fallen to the floor and fainted.

"...Lil' Woomy?" Sapphire whispered. Was the same thing happening again? It certainly looked like it. Now her friend was staring up at her, eyes filled with hatred, a smirk present on her face as she stood up.

"Please," Sapphire begged, "snap out of it! I don't wanna have to fight you again!" Lil' Woomy jumped at her, pushing both out the window, shattered glass around them as they fell.

This was  _bad._

Sapphire lived on the twentieth floor of the apartment. They were already falling fast. Glass shards fell past them, and several inklings shopping around the apartments looked in their direction, some of them pointing with mouths agape.

Sapphire was still in her pajamas, which consisted of shorts and a tank top, and the morning air was chilly. She could already feel goosebumps on her skin. Lil' Woomy held the scruff of her neck, fist aimed at Sapphire's face. Her eyes were like an octoling's, her teeth were gritted, making her expression one of pure anger.

"You're the one responsible for me losing control last time," she said. "So, if I'm going down, you're going down as well. Heh. Should have known you were an agent."

The last words struck Sapphire as odd. Why did she think she was an agent?

"I'm not an agent!" Sapphire yelled. "Anyway, who are you?!" "Lil' Woomy" smirked.

"I'm the same octoling that killed your friend's parents," she said. "You can just call me Midnight."

Something seemed to click. The names and faces she had seen in her dream, Midnight thinking she was an agent, heck, even the name "Midnight" sounded familiar.  _Is she right? Am I really tied into all this?_

_And more importantly, is this how I die?!_

_I mean, inklings don't have bones, so we should just bounce right off the pavement no problem, but we're falling from really high! What if one of us falls the wrong way?_

"What makes you think I'm an agent?!" Sapphire shouted, looking down to see how far from the ground they were.

Apparently, not very far.

"You're Sapphire, right?" Midnight chuckled. "Here's the thing. I knew your father."

They crashed into the asphalt. Everything hurt, and there were rocks and glass shards embedded in Sapphire's skin, but other than that, she was fine. She hoped with all her heart that Lil' Woomy was the same.

She was wrong.

One of her arms had a very deep cut in it, blood spilling out, a large glass shard stuck in her other elbow, her leg was twisted the wrong way, and she was unconscious. Sapphire took in a sharp breath, then ran over to her. She knelled over her friend, tears flowing like waterfalls.

" _Somebody!_ " Sapphire screamed. " _Lil' Woomy! She's injured!_ "

A couple inklings ran over, looking at the two of them. One was a boy with green hair and designer headphones, the other was a pink-haired girl with a school uniform.

"What happened?" the girl asked. The boy was checking her injuries, cringing when he saw how deep Lil' Woomy's cut was, then gasping when he saw the glass shard in her shoulder.

"I have no idea," Sapphire breathed, "but I need to get Lil' Woomy to the hospital! Quick, please! Isn't there a hospital nearby?" The girl looked at Lil' Woomy, who was now being carried by the boy, then looked at me.

"The Inkopolis Hospital is only a few blocks away," she said. "It'll take a couple minutes to get there, but she'll be alright." The boy had bandaged Lil' Woomy's arm already, then nodded to the girl. The group ran in the direction of the hospital.

Two minutes later, Sapphire burst into the hospital doors, right in front of the help desk. The lady there saw Lil' Woomy right away.

"Room E13, three doors down to your left."

They ran all the way down the hall and into the room, where several patients were sitting, and a man sat at the desk.

"Hello," he said, "what can I help you with-" He saw Lil' Woomy. "Emergency room, at the end of the hall on your right. I'll get a doctor in there immediately."

They rushed down the hall into the emergency room, and put Lil' Woomy in the bed. A young male doctor came into the room, then told the group to sit in the waiting room. Once they got there, the other two inklings left, and Sapphire thanked them for helping. She got the phone number of the doctor, and left, heading straight for Octo Valley.

She needed answers.

 

 


	18. Chapter 18

Lil' Woomy awoke in a strange bed, in a place she didn't know. A male inkling sat next to her, looking at her arms and legs with a worried expression on his face.

"Where am I? Sapphire?" She looked around, but found that the only one in the room was the other inkling. She then realized why the inkling looked so worried.

Her arms were bandaged, her leg hurt, but it was covered up right now. Tears stung her eyes. The inkling stood up next to her.

"Excuse me, could you tell me what happened that caused you to end up like this?" he asked.

"I...I really...really don't know," Lil' Woomy answered truthfully. Tears of pain flew down her face, nothing felt the same. Obviously, that octoling had taken over again, because she didn't remember anything. She thought she had killed her, though! She wanted to crumple up and never come back. "Who are you?"

"I'm Dr. Trident."

"Well, I remember one thing," Lil' Woomy said through tears. "I think I was controlled by an octoling."

She pushed the sheets down, wanting to know why her leg hurt. As her leg was revealed, she gasped. It was twisted the wrong way. She was never going to be the same again. This would scar her for life. Newly formed tears fell into the bed sheets, leaving small patches of water. The doctor left the room, leaving Lil' Woomy to cry alone.

She felt pain everywhere. This just wasn't fair. The world just didn't seem to like her, it seemed as though the world punished her for being alive. She had been punished three times now. She was attacked and her stuff was taken by three inklings and an octoling had taken control of her two times now, both times trying to kill or hurt her best friend.

She felt a strange presence in the room.

"Hello?"

There was no answer, but it felt as though a hand had patted her shoulder.

"Lil' Woomy, I've found you!" a voice shouted suddenly.

"Who's...w-who's there?" Lil' Woomy asked, her hand clenched into a fist.

"Your mother," the voice said.

Her mouth hung wide open. The outline of an inkling seemed to stand next to her, giving her a hug.

"M-Mom?" Lil' Woomy choked. The ghostly figure nodded. "But...b-but how?" She clutched the sheets of the bed. This must've been a dream, some sort of hallucination.

"I'm not really here, I'm just a spirit," she answered. Lil' Woomy's eyes widened. She was seeing her mom for the first time in eight years. But she noticed that the figure was starting to fade.

"Mom! Please don't leave me!" She was sobbing more.

"I have to go," her mother said, panic in her voice. "Something is going to happen very soon in this room, just be ready." As she said those words, she faded from view.

The doors of the room burst open, the doctor standing in the light that was now spilling into the room. Multiple doctors stood behind him. They cast dark shadows on the ground, leaving fragments of light to reach Lil' Woomy's eyes. Doctor Trident muttered something to the other doctors, then they came closer.

"What's happening?" Lil' Woomy asked, pulling the covers closer to her chin.

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all," one doctor spoke, viciously pulling the covers from her hands. Lil' Woomy screamed, trying to grasp the covers once more. The doctors pulled her out of the bed, setting her in a stretcher. Lil' Woomy was shocked.

"Quick, move her to the next room before she knows what's happening!" another figure shouted. Lil' Woomy snapped back to reality.

" _STOP!_ " she shouted through tears.

" _Faster!_ " one shouted.

She was pushed into another room, despite her efforts, and placed on another bed.

"We need different treatment, I heard her talking when there was no one in the room," a doctor shouted. Before Lil' Woomy was able to tell them what happened, a needle was jabbed into her arm and her vision soon faded to nothing.

* * *

Sapphire couldn't stand it anymore. Something felt wrong about leaving Lil' Woomy by herself in the hospital. Sapphire was already in the train to Inkopolis, having already gotten most of the rocks and glass out of her skin and putting ointment on it. She fished her iSquid out of her pocket and looked for the number of the doctor. She found it right before the train stopped, and called the number. The ring tone sounded twice, then someone picked up.

"Hello, this is doctor Trident, emergency room number twelve. Who is this, and what are you calling for?" The voice sounded exhausted, as if he had done something heavily rushed moments before.

"I'm Sapphire Seashot," she said. "I'm just checking to see if Lil' Woomy is okay and when I can see her."

There was a pause before the person hung up.

Something was wrong.

Sapphire regretted leaving Lil' Woomy there. She stayed on the train, as it was a round trip, and waited until she got back to Arowana.

Twenty minutes later, she burst into the emergency room, tears and sweat running down her face.

"I'm looking for Lil' Woomy!" she yelled. The lady at the ER desk looked up, surprised, then a smile appeared on her face.

"She's alright," she said. "The doctors just needed to give her a test to see if any other damage was done during the...what did you say it was?"

Sapphire gasped with relief.

"Well, we fell out a window," she said. "Don't ask."

"The doctors say she's alright to see her right now, so hurry, it might not be like that for long," she said. "Her room is-"

"I know, end of the hall on the right."

Sapphire ran down to Lil' Woomy, and burst through the doors.

"Lil' Woomy!" she yelled. Doctor Trident put a finger to his lips.

"She was exhausted," he said, "she wanted to take a nap. You can stay in here if you want, we've given her a cast for her leg, but she'll have to stay on crutches sometimes. We've also bandaged up her arm, it'll heal in a few weeks. Once she wakes up, you two can go home."

"Why didn't you pick up last time?"

"For a couple minutes, we actually thought something was seriously wrong. I hung up the phone in a panic because one of the other doctors needed me. We took a short scan, tested for any permanent mental or physical damage, but it seemed nothing was wrong with her."

There was a groan from the bed, and Sapphire looked over to see that Lil' Woomy had woken up and ran over to her.

"Sapphire?" Lil' Woomy asked. "Is that you?"

"You know it's me!"

Sapphire pulled Lil' Woomy into an embrace.

"Remember, we've supplied you with some crutches," said the doctor. "You'll only need to use them when you seriously need to. Other than that, you should be able to walk, run, and do turf wards and ranked battles just fine! Just be sure to take care of your leg while it heals."

"Anything else we should know?" Lil' Woomy asked.

"You should come back in a month or so, as to check on your leg and see how much longer it needs to heal," Doctor Trident replied. "If I'm correct, it should be back to normal in about two months, but you can never be sure. If you want to, you're free to leave now." The two girls smiled at him, and thanked him before leaving.

Sapphire picked up Lil' Woomy's crutches at the front desk, and asked her if she needed them. Lil' Woomy said not right now, and they left, going back to Sapphire's apartment. It seemed like a blur, a dream that you can't remember. By then, it had gotten late, and the sun was setting. Lil' Woomy got in the guest bed, and Sapphire got on some other gear and headed towards the train station.

"Now's the time," she muttered, "time to figure out this 'agent' thing."


	19. Chapter 19

Roy had learned something new that day. Trying to get Orca to forgive you is rather hard. She had said everything was fine, but she still seemed...rather irritated. Roy hoped it would all just blow over soon.

_Maybe I'll get her something... What kind of things does she like, anyway?_

Besides already staying up late because of having issues calming down enough to fall asleep (he had had a little too much caffeine), Roy was woken up earlier than he would have preferred. He  _hated_ it when Blackbelly Skatepark was one of the first stages of the day.

After leaving his apartment in Blackbelly, he decided to head down to the cafe, hoping it wouldn't be too busy. He hopped onto the train and rode all the way to the Plaza.

When he arrived, he ordered something warm and sat down at a table. He tapped his fingers to the beat of the music quietly playing in the cafe, and overheard some chatter from two inklings. A girl with pink tentacles, and a boy with green tentacles. They had caught his attention, and he started eavesdropping. He just couldn't help it.

"I hope that girl is okay, she looked pretty beat up," said the pink one, a hint of worry laced in her tone. The boy nodded his head.

"Me, too. The cut was pretty gross..."

_Probably a turf war incident..._

He heard his name called, so he went to collect his drink, then walked back outside to the Plaza. On the way out, he also bought a newspaper. He walked to the bench he usually sat on to take out all the coupons. He started flipping through to the back when he spotted an article about an injured girl at the hospital, and how it was supposedly a "strange case that we have yet to delve deeply into," as a doctor says.

_Must be the same inkling they were talking about, but how is the case strange? Maybe Captain Cuttlefish will know something about this! I'll have to face Orca again, though..._

_Cod help me..._

Quickly finishing the drink, he put the empty cup into a trash can, along with the newspaper, then turned into a dark blue squid. He swam over to the manhole to Octo Valley and jumped inside. He wanted to figure some stuff out, and attempt to talk to Orca again.

_Oh, boy. I can't wait._

* * *

Sapphire decided that night time was  _not_ the best time to explore Octo Valley when she fell asleep on the train. She had obviously been tired, so she tried going home and getting some sleep instead. It worked like a charm. She fell asleep instantly.

In the morning, Sapphire made breakfast for Lil' Woomy and herself, then left a note saying, "Going to Octo Valley, be back later!"

Probably not the best idea.

So, she ran out of the apartment, to the train station, got on the train, and arrived at Inkopolis Plaza. She ran all the way from the train station to the manhole to Octo Valley and squided in. Everything went dark for a second, before she appeared again in the familiar Octo Valley hub, or at least, that's what she called it.

A shed that she hadn't noticed before was standing right next to her, and Captain Cuttlefish was standing in front of it. He looked surprised to see Sapphire.

"Who the-" he started to say, before sighing. "Oh, it's just one of the civilians. Whatcha come her for, lassie? Octarians aren't quite invading Inkopolis yet."

"I'm not here for the octarians," Sapphire answered. "I'm here for answers." Captain Cuttlefish looked surprised, and he muttered something to himself before looking back at her.

"What's your name, lassie?"

"Sapphire," she said, "Sapphire Seashot." The Captain coughed a couple times, and when he looked up at Sapphire again, he looked star struck.

"You happen to know a Daniel Seashot?" he asked.

"He's my dad," Sapphire answered. "Of course I know him. How do  _you_ know him?

"Ey, he was part of Squidbeak Splatoon eighteen years ago, 'till he quit, you see," said the Captain. "He wanted to become a cook, so he moved and married your mother. A good man, he was. Very good man. Didn't know he already had a kid." He looked down, then looked back at Sapphire, waiting for her to reply.

"Well," said Sapphire, "I just wanted to know since this octoling named Midnight-"

" _MIDNIGHT?_ " the Captain interrupted. "Oh, she's been gettin' on our nerves since this whole ordeal first started. I'd whip her up if I had the chance..."

"So, you knew her?"

"Better than knew her. She was one of our agents, once, and she gave all our information to Octavio once she got the job. She was a traitor, and Orca knew it from the start."

"Orca?" Sapphire said, confused.

"Oh, she's just one of our agents," said the Captain. "She's octarian as well, but she's a golden heart, she is. Like the daughter I never had."

"Well, anyway," said Sapphire, "Midnight took control over my friend, Lil' Woomy. I don't know how, but we managed to jump out a window and get Lil' Woomy severely injured, that's for sure."

"Ey, that be Midnight's special talent," said Cuttlefish. "She be doin' it from the start, she be."

"I wanna be an agent."

Captain Cuttlefish seemed to lose his balance for a second, then turned back to Sapphire, looking startled.

"You wanna be an agent?" he said. Even after you've seen Midnight? Well, I suppose so, but I'll need to tell the others. Here's your gear. Try it on tonight, come back tomorrow and tell me if it fits. Here's an extra for that friend of yours. We could use some more agents like you two."

Sapphire did what the Captain said, and headed back to Arowana Apartments. When she got home, Lil' Woomy was still there.

"Where were you?" she asked.

"Long story short," said Sapphire, "we're agents now."

Silence.

"How...when...what?" Lil' Woomy sputtered.

"I told you, it's a long story that I'll tell you some other time," said Sapphire.

"Okay, if you say so. What do we do, then?"

"Umm, well, we can help out around Octo Valley!" Sapphire stated enthusiastically.

"But...is that it?"

"Lil' Woomy, that...it doesn't really matter right now." Lil' Woomy looked down at the ground, her head dropping the slightest bit. "There will be plenty to do as an agent, Lil' Woomy, we just have to wait a little while until we can do what we want." Sapphire looked the slightest bit guilty. Her partner said nothing, just looked at her leg. It hurt like crazy.

"Sapphire, is it normal to have your leg feel completely awful after you break it?" she asked. It didn't feel much better than it had at the hospital.

"I don't know, you would have to ask someone who has broken their leg before," Sapphire responded, the slightest hint of worry in her eyes. Lil' Woomy stood up, grabbed her crutches in case she needed them to walk, her Carbon Roller if something bad happened, and began walking.

"Wait, where are you going?" Sapphire asked, running up behind her and putting a hand on her shoulder.

Lil' Woomy turned around, with some difficulty, and looked at Sapphire. "I honestly don't know, wherever my mind takes me."

"Please stay, clearly you're hurt and need rest," Sapphire begged, worry etched in both her expression and her tone. It was too late, her friend was already walking out the door.

Turns out her mind took her to Octo Valley, as her feet took her to the manhole.

"Okay, looks like I'm going in," she said. She tried to say it with confidence, but she ended up just feeling worse. She wasn't very sure she should go in. Maybe that octoling would have an easier time gaining control over her. She stood above the manhole, deciding what to do, until she heard footsteps behind her. She turned around and saw Sapphire.

"Lil' Woomy, please don't go," she said. "I need you to try something on and I just want to talk to you about...stuff." There was a glint of sadness or shame in her eyes, Lil' Woomy couldn't tell. She didn't know what was so wrong. She just wanted to be alone for a little while.

 _But she's my friend,_ she reasoned,  _and friends stick together._

_I have to make a decision. Follow my mind or follow my heard._

She looked to the manhole, then back to Sapphire.

_Mind or heart. Octo Valley or Sapphire._

"You okay, Lil' Woomy?" Sapphire asked. Lil' Woomy nodded. "Just...tell me what you're going to do."

"I guess I'll..." She paused. She didn't know what to say. She didn't want to risk losing Sapphire as a friend. "I'll come with you, Sapphire."

They walked back to the train and sat next to each other, the cart slowly pulling out of the station with a few thumps. The thumps got quieter and more rhythmic, and Lil' Woomy thought it relaxing.

_I guess that I'll just have to wait another time, Octo Valley. You're still not safe._

The train stopped, and the two walked back to the apartment.

"Lil' Woomy, could you try this on?" Sapphire asked, a wad of clothes in her hands.

"Sure."

* * *

Orca hadn't seen the other agents in what seemed like forever. Really, it was just less than a week, but it had all seemed like one big month with nothing to do except read the newspaper.

By the way, reading the newspaper gets you a  _lot_ of information. For example, some inkling girl being severely injured, and the fact that one of the eye witnesses said that she "jumped out a window." It didn't seem very suspicious, and Orca couldn't help but feel a sting of sympathy for the girl mentioned, but it felt like things were starting up again after the big explosion in Octavio's Labyrinth.

Snapping back to reality, she realized she was no longer the only one in the room. Meilie, Tramp, and Steel were also in the shed, and Roy had just entered. Orca narrowed her eyes, guilt and bitterness washing over her like a high tide. The two had been bitter about the argument in the Labyrinth for days, and the tension just hadn't melted away yet.

Though, she supposed that was her own fault. She didn't have the heart to forgive him yet.

"Hey, Orca," Roy started.

"It's  _fine_ ," Orca snarled through gritted teeth. The inkling backed off a little, looking down at his feet.

"Okay," said the Captain, walking in. "I have some good news and bad news."

"What's the bad news?" Steel asked. Tramp elbowed him in the stomach, and Steel murmured a few things under his breath.

"The bad news," said the Captain. He sighed before continuing. "Midnight's back, and it ain't pretty, either."

Orca had to stop herself from instinctively standing up and blurting out a few swears, as most of the room looked relatively confused. No one would understand her anger at the other octoling, so she decided she had better act civilized.

"Midnight used to be one of our agents, guys," she explained. "She was an octoling, like me. Unlike me, however, she gave out all our information to Octavio," she gritted her teeth," which I  _knew she would do_." She sighed. "She also had the power to take over inklings' minds, which made her even more dangerous."

"Which brings me to my good news!" the Captain said jovially. "I've recruited two new agents to join us, and they'll be here tomorrow!"

"So, who are they, eh?" Meilie asked. "What if they're spies like this Midnight girl?"

"Well," said the Captain, "I think you might know them, Meilie. Their names are Sapphire and Lil' Woomy, I think."

"Why do we need more agents, anyway?" Roy asked. "And why those two? Only Meilie knows them." Orca shot him a stern look, and he shriveled back. Tramp spoke up immediately.

"I...er...partially know them," she sputtered, trying her hardest to contribute something useful to the conversation. "I saved them from those octoling elites in the teapot where the Labyrinth used to be."

"And, what's even better," said the Captain," Lil' Woomy apparently knows what it's like to be possessed by Midnight!" Orca sighed.

_Like that would be better._

"And Sapphire is actually the daughter of a friend I had eighteen years ago!"

"Let me guess," said Orca. "Daniel Seashot's daughter? He quit though, didn't he?"

"Well," said the Captain, "she seemed really interested in this agent stuff, and even asked if she could be an agent. And now that we have more agents on our side, we could surely beat Octavio once and for all!"

Nobody had anything to say to this. Orca thought it was a good idea, and so did Steel, but the rest of them seemed to disagree.

"Man, chief," said Steel, looking at Tramp, "you should tell me about this stuff more often!"

"Well, yeah," said Tramp, "but I didn't know these people would be  _joining_ us! It seems like we have no choice but to say yes."

A couple minutes later, Orca found herself back outside the shed, Roy and the others having just left. As usual, she went to check out the turf wars via the cameras placed around Inkopolis.

"Maybe I can find those two Inklings," she muttered.

 


End file.
